IchiRuki Ramen
by Random Cookies
Summary: Naruto has always wanted a family, now with some new workers at Ichiraku Ramen, now Naruto finds himself with one. With new allies, how will Naruto proceed as he strives to become the worlds greatest shinobi? One obvious pairing others yet to come!
1. Ch1: Prologue

**To be simple I'm going to put a generic disclaimer here: If I owned Naruto, Bleach, or anything that earned me money, I would try to introduce too many unique ideas and have that position taken away from me, so the only thing I own is the plot and a few OC's**

**Just a simple change of vowels and we have a crossover that defies the entire timeline of the Naruto universe as we know it. I tried to write this before, but found myself doing too many things, hopefully this will turn out good :)**

**Demons/Summons/Powerful People (like myself :P)  
><strong>_Flashbacks/EMPHASIS_  
><span>JutsuKido/Techniques

**Enjoy Ch1!**

Ch1: (Prologue)

'What a day' a five year old Naruto thought to himself as he walked the streets of Konoha, his home, 'Stupid teacher kept yelling at me for the entire day- now everyone hates me again.'

The academy was never fun for him; he was always yelled at, given crappy grades, and given mean looks by everybody.

~NYRYUOoooo~

The young boy clutched his stomach in embarrassment as everyone around him seemingly stopped and stared… with _those_ eyes,

"Hey you there!"

Naruto turned to see a small stand behind him, where he heard the voice from, but couldn't see the source because it had a drape infront of the stools,

"Come here!"

The voice didn't sound threatening; more like bored or annoyed maybe, but not in a mean way. Currious, the blonde wandered over to the shop and poked his head in,

Wow.

The scent of fresh broth filled his nose as he found himself facing a counter with several stools, with the kitchen visible in the background. He was surrounded by steam and mist of the good scents and it overwhelmed his senses.

"Here, eat up," Naruto snapped out of his scent spaz and found himself looking up to an orange-haired teen with thin eyes and a scarlet red hoodie, who seemed rather unconcerned with anything in particular, say, for instance, that he didn't ask for a payment

Or maybe the fact that the stove was on fire.

"AGH!" Naruto jumped back and pointed at the flame, causing the teenager to look at him oddly before turning to the direction he pointed in and promptly started to take care of the situation very professionally,

"HOOOOLY-" The teen grabbed several pans from the kitchen and started to fan the fire- attempting to put it out by suffocating it-

"Suiton: Teppōdama! (Water Style: Liquid Bullet!)"

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the fire put out in an instant by a blast of water, soaking the orange-haired teen,

"ICHIGO!"

"IMSORRYIMSORRYIM-Ow!"

Naruto watched in confusion as the orange haired boy was flung over to the counter, next to him as a teenage girl, much shorter than Ichigo, with black hair that curved neatly around her head and spiked back in the back came forward, obviously after hitting him,

"I told you not to use the stove unless someone else was here, but you just HAD to not listen to me,"

"Umm, Rukia-"

"Now the stove is ruined, the wall and pans as well, and not to mention everything that was cooking. BAKA!"

Naruto winced as the girl's fist hit the other teen in the stomach, causing him to stumble backwards and groan in pain,

"Hm? A customer?"

Naruto gulped as the girl leaned over the counter and looked him in the eye inquisitively seemingly forever, like she was searching for something. Finally she got up and went started walking back into the kitchen,

"Eat up, before it gets cold!"

Naruto looked down to the bowl of noodles in front of him, completely forgetting that it was there,

"I'm really sorry," Naruto replied, pushing the bowl back, moving to leave the stand, "I don't have any money, but I appreciate it and all-"

Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder as he turned to leave, looking back he saw the orange haired teen, who looked him in the eye before pulling him back, "It's on the house. Hurry up before it gets cold."

"Really?" Naruto's eyes lit up with excitement and walked back to the counter, reclaiming the bowl and picking up a pair of chopsticks, "Thanks!"

As Naruto took his first bite his eyes seemed to bulge with happiness and the orange haired teen smiled, sitting down opposite of him,

"Don't mind Rukia, she's just a little odd sometimes," Naruto looked up and saw the teen looking at him sheepishly,

"Oh, it's alright," Naruto waved it off, "It's really no big deal."

"Ok then," Naruto continued to devour his bowl until he heard him continue, "What's your name?"

"Uzumaki," He said as he finished the bowl, "Uzumaki Naruto."

"Hm?" he looked at him surprised, "You mean like fishcake?"

"Fishcake?" Naruto replied, "What's fishcake?"

The older boy smirked, "Hey Rukia, Fishcake here doesn't know what fishcake is!"

"Really?" Naruto heard her reply from the back, "Well I guess we'll have to show him,"

"Huh?" Naruto suddenly found another bowl in front of him, this one looked much different from the one he had before, but it smelled just as nice, "Oh I'm fine, honest-"

~NYRYUOoooo~

Naruto blushed again as the other teen laughed at him, "Make that two Rukia, he looks really hungry."

"Sure thing!"

Naruto just sat their staring at the food infront of him with no idea what to say, not having anyone act this nicely to him in a long time,

"Come on!" Naruto looked up to the teen, "Eat up already!"

Taken aback by the order Naruto proceeded to devour the dish. When he had finished, he leaned back in his chair and sighed,

"Thank you," Naruto said, "I really appreciated this,"

"No problem," The teen said, "Anytime,"

The two sat in silence before Naruto jumped off the stool and turned around, heading out of the stand with a wave,

"Take care!"

"Hey wait," Naruto turned back to see both teens waving, "Make sure you come back tomorrow!"

Tomorrow?

"Sure!" he waved back energetically, "I'll make sure I will!"

With that he left the stand and ran home, happy to have something to look forward to in the morning, before going to sleep.

What a great day!

0-0-0

"You saw it too didn't you," Ichigo said as the two closed up the stand,

"Of course," she replied, "It was all over his face. If you couldn't see it you would have to be blindfolded."

"I know," he replied, folding a baking apron and setting it on the shelf, "Well, we should head back; it's getting pretty late,"

"Yeah," Rukia yawned, "Coming here after a shift was pretty tiring. Kami knows how much work you do on those things,"

"Same," The two walked out the back of the stand and locked the door behind them before walking onto the streets towards home,

"Halt!" the two stopped as an ANBU appeared infront of them in a blur, "The Hokage requests your presence immediately,"

"Ok then," Ichigo grumbled, "So much for a good night's sleep."

0-0-0

School was so boring.

Naruto tapped his fingers as he watched the clock, the day was just starting but it was already taking forever,

"Alright class settle down!" Naruto watched as the teacher managed to grab the classes' attention, "Thank you. Now, we have a new student in our class, so please make sure to help her around class and such,"

The teacher motioned to the girl next to him and Naruto looked, finding a girl his own age with short, light brown hair that split to the side, putting a bang over to the right side of her face, and she had dark-brown eyes. She wore a light green short-sleeved shirt and a pale-yellow skirt, and wore it well in his opinion,

"Um… Hi!" The girl waved at the class, "My name is Yuzu Kurosaki and I'll be a part of your class from now on, it's good to meet you!"

"Would anyone like to volunteer to let her shadow them for the day?" The teacher asked, and several hands popped up (Kiba was the first of course), eventually choosing to let Sakura show her around.

This year might actually be interesting.

0-0-0

After the period had ended, Naruto moved through the hallways slowly, sticking to the side and avoiding contact from other people. He was usually pretty good at avoiding accidents-

"Owf!" Naruto stumbled back as a startled Yuzu fell to the floor.

-Because it happened all the time.

"Yuzu! Are you ok?" Sakura rushed over to the girl, obviously worried. Not waiting for an answer she turned to the blonde, "Watch where you're going baka!"

"I-" Naruto looked down at the new student, showing sorrow in his eyes, before looking back to the assembled students, "I-I'm sorry,"

Naruto turned and ran through the crowd,trying to get away from the glares- the glares that would not go away!

He had hoped, just hoped, that maybe this new student could be different, but because of his clumsiness he was denied again.

Naruto dashed out of the academy and towards his apartment, hoping to find solitude _somewhere_.

0-0-0

"Who was that? Just now?" a perplexed Yuzu asked as Sakura helped her to her feet, "I think I saw him in our last class,"

"That was Naruto," Sakura said distastefully, "He's a horrible student, he sleeps in class, he gets our class in trouble all the time, and he's always doing stupid things."

"He doesn't seem that bad," Yuzu tried to search for something good amongst the insults, "Isn't their anything good about him?"

"Nothing that comes to mind," Sakura said, leaving the two in silences briefly, but Sakura tended to that quickly, "Come on, Ino's in our next class- she would love to meet you!"

0-0-0

A pair of dark grey eyes, having watched the events unfold before the crowd had gathered, had decided to move on as well. The girl, being the owner of her eyes, had straight black hair that cropped around her face, and wore a red, short-sleeved shirt with two diagonal yellow stripes and black mesh shorts,

"A-Ano…" The girl turned to see her new friend, Hinata Hyuuga, motioning to her, "Our class is t-that way… we should hurry Karin-san…"

"Mhm," Karin Kurosaki nodded, "I'll be right with you."

0-0-0

"NO!" Naruto squirmed within the grip of the ANBU as they struggled totake him back to the academy, "NONONONOOO! I WILL NOT GO BACK!"

'Geez Hokage-sama,' Hatake Kakashi, ANBU captain and currently in charge of the 'Catch Naruto Uzumaki Squad,' assembled by the Hokage on such occasions as this, 'I'm just about to let the kid stay home, he looks really upset.'

"I'm sorry Naruto," Kakashi and several other ANBU finally managed to restrain him as they began the journey to the Academy, "But you have to go to the Academy. Hokage's orders."

"I DON'T WANT TO GO!"

The experienced shinobi sighed as the blonde continued to squirm, 'I am sorry, it wasn't fun for me either Naruto, but we all had to endure it at some point.'

0-0-0

"Soccer?" A perplexed Iruka asked his new student, "What's that?"

An evil gleam shone in Karin's eyes as she picked up the ball and spun it on her finger, "I guess I'll have to introduce it then… EVERBODY OUTSIDE!"

The class was instantly perked as the students all ran out the doors, with Iruka perplexed as to how she so easily took control of the situation,

This will be an interesting group alright.

"Iruka Umino?" an ANBU appeared in the doorway with Naruto under his arm, who was obviously struggling to escape, "We have something of yours,"

"…" Naruto stopped struggling, as he realized retaliation would only worsen his situation and slowly stood up on his own accord, then walked forward to his sensei, lowering his head, "Sorry Iruka-sensei,"

His teacher waved off the apology, "No need Naruto, I heard what happened, it's ok,"

"Have a good day then Naruto," The ANBU disappeared from sight,

"Come on Naruto," Iruka said, motioning the boy outside, "We're going outside today,"

0-0-0

Soccer was a crazy sport.

After showing everyone the rules and appointing herself the referee, Karin (another new student) had stepped aside and let the students pick teams. Being picked last was normal, so he wasn't dishelved when-

"We have an uneven amount of players!" one of the girls said, "That means the last person to be picked should sit out. Just to be fair."

Seeing as there were only three students left to be picked- Naruto being one of them, Iruka quickly stepped in, "I think I know enough of the rules to be the referee Karin, so you can play,"

"Ok then," Karin was immediately chosen to a team, and Naruto was picked last- but at least picked- to the opposite team. The field was marked with a few cones and the game was set up. He was told to be the Goalie he was told to stay by his classmates, the game immediately kicked off-

"START!"

Naruto couldn't see much from where he was standing, but he saw where the crowd was moving in waves, seeing them constantly scramble over where the ball was Naruto began to understand the game slightly-

"Foul!" Iruka stopped the game as he walked over to the spot where the ball had been, "Kiba, not only using your dog is a foul, but like Karin had said earlier, only the goalie can use his or her hands."

"Sorry…" Kiba sent Akamaru over to the side for the remainder of the game, giving Naruto's team the ball.

He couldn't see exactly what was happening, but he saw one of his teammates step behind the line with the ball on it, and he was allowed to take a kick- and he launched it! The ball went right over their heads…

And another foul was called, this time for being TOO FAR out of bounds.

Eventually the ball was put back into play, and after a few more fouls and fails one of his teammates scored!

Instead of letting the other team get a kick from behind the line like the fouls, they were brought back to the middle of the field, and when given the go, the crowd seemed to swerve against the current again, away from Naruto.

0-0-0

It had been about a half-hour since they had come outside, and Naruto's team had scored 5 points. The other team had no points, so Naruto was confident the period would end before he saw any action-

"START!"

Having been given the ball again, the losing team did something Naruto never would have expected.

They punted it.

Naruto watched his life flash before his eyes as the ball came towards him, ducking at the last minute, letting it sail over his head,

"Goal!"

Naruto was surprised to hear the words and turne bhind, him, seeing the ball rolling to a stop a ways off… between the area of the two cones.

Dismissing it as his stupidity, the rest of his team left him as goalie during the next match,-

Only for a repeat.

And another.

AND ANOTHER.

And finally, Naruto was switched for another teammate and sent to the be with the other players, eventually bringing himself towards the front (since everyone seemed to be shrinking away from the ball) and facing off against Karin,

"4-3! 4 points controlling the ball. This will be the last play before the period ends, so make it good," Iruka let the whistle blow,

"BEGIN!"

Naruto, after seeing the ball be launched time and time again, did something no one expected,

He launched his own leg forward, knocking it out of Karin's path as everyone watched in awe,

The moment didn't last however, as one of her teammates took the ball and started to go down towards his goal. Naruto quickly followed it and the crowd began its chase.

As one of the other team members began to prepare a shot, Naruto quickly dashed around her, taking the ball with his foot and punting it down to the other side, near the other goal.

Being the only fresh player, Naruto easily ran over to the ball first and moved to take a shot at the goal, until he realized who the goalie was

Chouji.

Naruto grumbled as he wondered how any of his teammates possibly made any goals against him until he found the ball taken from under him-

Karin?

Naruto immediately turned around and began to chase her back into the crowd of other teammates, not really caring about anything except taking the ball from her himself, Naruto ignored the attempts of his teammates to take the ball from her and he got infront of her, trying to take it out from under her again,

Only for her to grab the ball with both feet and jump, getting out of Naruto's range, proceeding to land with it between her knees. Naruto moved to try and knock her legs apart, but Karin let the ball go to her feet, and Naruto began an assault of attempts to take the ball from her, only for her to avoid all of them, frusturating him even more,

Eventually Naruto, frusturated at attempting to predict her movements and failing, closed his eyes and stuck his foot out-

Hitting the ball…?

Naruto opened his eyes excited as he saw he HAD hit the ball, not only that, but he had hit it FAR.

Far enough that Choji was the only one standing in it's way.

'Almost their!' Naruto started to run towards the ball with as much effort as he could, determined to make the goal and prevent them from tying, finding himself running head to head with Karin,

The two looked at each other briefly, both determined to get the ball before the other, almost their-

Knowing what was coming Naruto stuck his foot infront of the ball, so that when Karin went to retrieve it by moving it back with her foot, he pulled it out of her reach,

'Almost their!'

Naruto ran up to the goal, kicking it with his last leg, trying not to hit his friend, sending it flying to the side as the bell was heard throughout the campus,

"Game!" Iruka said as Naruto slumped, knowing he had missed the goal, meaning his team had lost.

But hey, hitting Choji would have been worse in his opinion.

"Hey you," Naruto turned at the voice amongst the squabbles of the other students moving to their classes, seeing Karin approach him, causing him to shrink back, "That was a good game you played there, what's your name?"

"N-Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto," he stuttered as he shook her hand,

"Hm, well that's good to know," she waved as she walked away, "Having competition is always better than nothing. Later, Naruto!"

Naruto tried to figure out what had happened as he walked to his next class, but, as he expected, he couldn't figure it out.

0-0-0

"Bye Yuzu!"

"Bye Sakura!" Yuzu waved as she parted ways with her new friend. The academy was much larger than it looked, which made her life easier while Sakura was there to guide her. The two had bonded easily and she was delighted to have a new friend so soon. It was great!

As she walked home from the academy she wondered about the rest of the class though, there was the kid with the dog (she hoped no one had allergies) who seemed nice- maybe _too_ nice. There was Ino, Sakura's friend, who seemed nice too, and then a couple of the other girls she had met. Surprisingly though she hadn't seen her sister the entire day.

Wondering the whereabouts of her sister, she shook it off, knowing she would be home eventually, and she could ask her about it then.

0-0-0

'I wonder where jiji is,' Naruto thought as he walked out of Hokage Tower, being rejected by the secretary who had told him the Hokage was out for the day, 'Hope he's ok,'

Naruto walked through the shadows of the streets, staying away from the mainstream traffic like he always did, as he wondered about the two new students in the Academy; Yuzu and Karin, who were they? Where did they come from?

From what he could tell of at least Karin was that she was from another country entirely, having introduced a sport to them like this 'soccer,' is something done with foreign nations. He knew of quite a few international sports existed; none of them were quite like this. Feet were never the basis of much, since hands were necessary to use jutsu everyone stressed arm movement to make sure that hands and arms could defend themselves and quickly get out of bad situations. But this sport was almost all legs.

He really liked the sport though- it was great fun. Maybe they would play it again soon.

He admitted he didn't know anything about the other girl, Yuzu, and continued down his train of thought, wondering what type of strategies there are for the new sport, when he remembered that he had to find that stand he had found yesterday, and began retracing his steps to find it,

The streets were rather busy, but it didn't take long to figure out where the stand was and he started to walk towards it, now seeing it ahead,

"Hey," Naruto heard the call, but ignored it and continued walking, thinking it wasn't for him, "You're that Naruto-guy I met earlier!"

Pausing at being mentioned he slowly turned to the source, seeing Yuzu walk up to him from behind,

"Umm hi…" Naruto stuttered, unsure of what to say, "S-sorry about earlier, I-"

"Hey you!" Naruto heard a whistling sound ringing and put himself in front of Yuzu, getting hit by a glass bottle in the process, which sent him stumbling to the ground in pain,

"AGGGH!"

"Oh my gosh!" the girl leaned over and looked at Naruto, who was kneeling on the ground trying to cope with the hit he had taken from the bottle on his back, which had shred some of his shirt with the broken pieces and soaked his scraped, bleeding skin,

"Stay away from her little miss, if ya know what's good for you,"

Yuzu looked up angrily at the civilian who had thrown the bottle, "Why did you do that? What did he ever do to you?"

The civilian, who was now backed by multiple, narrowed his eyes angrily, "I am not allowed to tell you little miss, but I will have to ask you to step aside."

"And I'm afraid you'll just have to let them go,"

Yuzu looked up from the civilians gaze, "Karin?"

"Yuzu, go get ichi-nii," Naruto looked up and saw Karin take a defensive stance, "I can hold things here."

"Be careful," After exchanging nods Yuzu ran off into the crowd, disappearing from sight.

"Well now," one of the civilians commented, "Don't you have a lot of self-confidence here, little miss."

"…" Karin said nothing, just standing there,

"I think we might be able to negotiate something here," another civilian said, "Maybe you can step aside, and we can deal with the brat. How does that sound?"

Again, hearing nothing, Naruto grit his teeth, slowly moving to stand up,

"Stay down you idiot!" Naruto paused and looked to Karin as the source of the voice, "Moving will only make it harder to fix you up, just wait."

"I think that this game of stalling is taking too long," a civilian finally walked out of the assembled group and towards Karin, "One less brat in this town might be better for us anyway,"

"Karin run!" Naruto said as he saw the man come closer, "I'll be fine, honest, just run and get the Hokage-"

"Hokage's out brat!" Naruto looked up to see the secretary from jiji's office emerge from the crowd as well, cracking her knuckles, "Being behind that desk keeps me from having any of the fun these guys get, I think its time I get my share,"

Karin mumbled something as the civilian continued to walk forward, "Huh? You say something _BRAT_?"

"I said," The civilian suddenly found a foot between his legs and screamed like a girl as he fell to the ground, making his accomplices wince, "That I would enjoy doing that,"

Looking at the rest of the crowd with anger on her face she took her position again, "Who's next?"

At this the entire crowd rushed her, some of them even had clubs, she grunted as she produced a soccer ball and threw it at the crowd- hitting someone square in the face before bouncing back towards her, allowing her to kick it again and hit another attacker,

Naruto watched in awe as she proceeded to knock out three men before they actually reached her, which is when she really started to show her colors. They came at her in a manner similar to a phalanx, so that they would get around her one way or another. In response she kicked the first man to reach her in the gut, hard enough to launch herself backwards and grab the heads of the men that got past her and smash them together with a sickening crack.

As she landed Naruto watched in horror as one of the civilians managed to land a hit on her face, sending her back at Naruto. Grunting from the pain Naruto managed to move fast enough to catch her in the air to prevent her hitting the wall, which he did instead.

"You're dead now!" Before either of them could recover from the backfire a civilian already had a club raised high over his head, ready to smash down on them, only for it to suddenly be sliced in two,

By a gigantic meat cleaver,

"Hey you there," The man turned around, finding himself facing a tall, orange haired teenager in a scarlet hoodie and narrow, angry eyes,

Ichigo?

"I got something for you in the mail,"

BAM!

The teen's fist smashed into the man's face, causing his face to start bleeding as several teeth went flying,

"There, now its delivered," Ichigo turned to face the rest of the civilians, swinging the meat cleaver like a baton several times before letting it land on his shoulder, "Now, for those of you who have a problem can step forward, I called for a medical team ahead of time so don't worry, you're all covered."

Angry, but fearful, the rest of the civilians started walking away, and Ichigo looked over to Naruto, whose condition he could easily determine,

"Hokage's out eh?" Ichigo grunted as he managed to pull the boy over his shoulder, "Karin, Yuzu's almost done getting the place ready for treatment, let's go, quickly,"

After nodding the two siblings dashed off towards their destination- home.

0-0-0

"Hold still Naruto!" Ichigo struggled to get the boy still while Karin and Yuzu attempted to get the small shards out of his back, having cleaned up the larger shards and everything else already, "We're almost done ok? Just let us finish!"

"The other parts weren't as painful!" Naruto said as he squirmed under the older boy's grip, "Ugh… Stupid department store didn't have any advil…"

"Be quiet Naruto we're trying to work!" Yuzu scolded him as they pulled out the tiny shards, 'That guy aimed to kill, the bottle was already cracked when he threw it, it shattered like a needle grenade,'

"I'm sorry," Naruto said, "It just-"

Karin gained a tick mark as she worked, "If you say hurts one more time I will poke these tweezers in your spine! Got it?"

Naruto gulped, "This is so bogus…"

"I think that's the last one Yuzu," the girls nodded and Ichigo let Naruto go, who sat up and stretched,

"Thanks you guys," Naruto said, "I really appreciate it,"

"Why were they after you like that Naruto?" Yuzu asked as the Kurosaki's started to put their equipment away, "That was like nothing I've ever seen- the secretary of the Hokage? How did that happen?"

"I…" Naruto stood up, wondering what he should say in response, "I don't really know. It's just always been like that I guess…" Naruto shook himself off as he looked around briefly, "Hey, where's my jacket?"

"It got badly stained," Naruto turned to see his favorite jacket being held up by Karin, and saw that the entire back side was indeed ruined, and he sighed, "Sorry Naruto,"

"I think I might have an old one you can use," Naruto looked over to Ichigo, who was digging through a closet, "It'll probably be a little big though,"

Ichigo then pulled out a jacket from the closet and handed it to Naruto. Naruto received it as he looked over it, finding a liking to the navy-blue jacket. It was a little big for him, but it was better than nothing,

"Hey come on," Ichigo motioned for them all to move, "Let's head over to the stand and get a bite to eat."

0-0-0

"This is really good!" Naruto said between slurps as Yuzu and Karin sweatdropped, watching Naruto as he ate his fifth bowl in a row in three seconds flat, "Hey, one more miso pork please!"

"Coming right up!" Naruto's eyes shone with joy as Ayame, a waiter and the daughter of Teuchi, the owner of the stand, brought out another bowl of his favorite dish, "Now you'll have to wait if you want more, since we need to make another batch,"

"Ok Ayame-neechan,"

The girl smiled and walked back to the kitchen, leaving Naruto with Ichigo and his sisters, "So you attend the academy too Naruto?"

"Yeah, its ok," Naruto slurped his last bite as he finished the bowl, leaning back in his stool, "I can't be a ninja unless I go through the academy."

"I thought Rukia managed to make Chunin once we got here though," Karin replied, causing Naruto to twitchas she looked at her brother, "Right?"

"Uh, yeah, she did." Naruto looked at them in jealousy as he tried to understand what had just been said,

"Wait, she didn't go through the academy, but Rukia is a chunin already?"

"Yeah, apparently there's a policy pertaining to adopting foreign shinobi, so Sarutobi made her a chunin," Ichigo replied, "She was powerful before she even knew how to do ninjitsu though, so I'm not really surprised,"

"Are you a ninja too then?" Naruto asked, "Because I saw you back there with the meat cleaver, that was something I've never seen before!"

"It's nothing, really," Ichigo waved him off, "I'm not a ninja Naruto, but that doesn't mean I can't kick ass-"

"Watch it!"

"Ow!" Ichigo shouted in protest, "What the heck Ayame? That was uncalled for!"

"I don't want your vocabulary passed on to these kids, their so impressionable at this age, watch your mouth."

Watching Ichigo attempt to recover from being scolded by Ayame for a minute or two only made the kids laugh even harder at his expense,

'Is this what family is like?' Naruto asked himself as Teuchi joined in their laughing from the kitchen while Rukia came and began to assault Ichigo for being rude, 'This warm feeling… Is this what it's like to truly live?'

Their comedy act inspired by Ichigo continued late into the night as Naruto began to have the best time he had had in a long time.

X=X=X

**Cut!**

**So how was it? Please leave a review since I don't want to just sit here and leave this story to possibly die, please review!**

**Much has yet to be explained as to the exact nature of the crossover, but it is more than just 'oh these people always lived in fire country,' or something simple like that. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon!**

**~Crunch! (Random Cookies) :D**


	2. Ch2: Genin Trial by Betrayal

**To be simple I'm going to put a generic disclaimer here: If I owned Naruto, Bleach, or anything that earned me money, I would try to introduce too many unique ideas and have that position taken away from me, so the only thing I own is the plot and a few OC's**

**Chapter Two! Hopefully I can get to a third chapter before I run out of steam!**

**Demons/Summoning/Powerful People (like me :P)**

_Flashback/EMPHASIS_

Jutsu/Kido/Techniques

Ch2: Genin Trial by Betrayl

Ramen.

~SHLUUUURP!~

Emptiness.

Naruto frowned as he realized his breakfast was gone already, knowing he wanted to preserve it over the course of the morning.

Heck, that's what he always told himself.

Naruto entered the classroom silently and went into the back, sitting in the same spot he usually did, Naruto looked over the rest of his class, looking to see if Yuzu had come or not, finally finding her seated next to Sakura and Ino, before leaning back and relaxing. It had been a year since he was introduced to ramen and the new year brought new classes and arrangement, now putting everyone, except Karin, in his first period; Yuzu, Sakura, Ino, Sasuke *including fangirls,* Shino, Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji, and Hinata. It was an interesting mix that seemed to work well for him, because it allowed him to stay in the back like usual without really gaining the attention of anyone unless called on by a teacher. Iruka wasn't like the other teachers however, so he didn't have anything to worry about here.

"Ok, settle down!" Iruka shouted, "I have the test here, and I'm about to pass it out FACE-DOWN, so make sure you don't look at it,"

The teacher proceeded to pass out the test amongst the rows, and eventually everyone settled down, so that the room was silent as Iruka started to put on his serious face,

"This is the written portion of the test; which will be done over the course of 45 minutes. You are to answer every question to the best of your ability, even if you don't know the answer,"

Iruka walked over to his desk and sat down, quickly winding a timer before letting out the signal,

"Begin!"

Naruto flipped over the test and looked, prepared for anything, he made sure to get the textbook this year-

Until he saw the first question,

'How to find the answer to a parabola relating to shuriken? Explain how that describes the person throwing it, and how they might have done better?' Naruto shook his head thoroughly as he looked at the first problem on his test, 'Wow. This might take a good five minutes,'

Looking over to the question again, he remembered that the test was multiple choice, and after looking over the answers for a while, he filled in the bubble he thought was the most accurate,

'This is really hard,' Naruto said to himself as he continued through the test, 'Isn't their like, 30 questions? Its been 5 minutes and I just answered the first question!'

'Now, how to crack this code…'

0-0-0

"Keep working hard while I leave the substitute teacher here everyone," A chunin instructor said as he closed the door to his classroom before walking down the hallway. He then let out his wide smirk, it had taken a lot of strings to pull, but he had finally done it. When he noticed that the brat was succeeding he managed to find a way to ensure his failure-

A phony test just for him,

He laughed madly from inside his psyche, getting those test questions from Ibiki's possible Chunin Exam questions had been a stroke of genius.

There was no way to stop his plan now.

0-0-0

'Done!' Naruto put his pencil down and examined his paper, looking over every possible mistake or flaw he could have made, only to find none. He smirked before putting his hand up for Iruka to collect it.

Man, that felt good!

0-0-0

"Now is the time for the target practice!" Iruka continued, motioning to a set of dummies set up at a distance with a kunai, "This test will not be timed, but will be done individually, and each person will be given three attempts with three projectiles (kunai and/or shuriken) to hit the three targets. Each target hit is 1 point. Every miss is -1 point, if you can make the projectile hit multiple targets, you get 1 point for every target hit, and if there is a leftover projectile when all three have been knocked down then they count as 1 point each."

"First up is Aburame Shino!"

'Hmm… he mentioned that you could hit multiple targets with the same weapon, how would that work?' Naruto observed Chouji take his shots and do fairly well, but not do it perfectly, 'Maybe theirs something I can get from watching the others,'

"Akimichi Chouji!"

Naruto watched how each of the other students took their throws, all of them trying to hit the individual targets. Eventually there were only two of them left,

"Uchiha Sasuke"

And himself.

Naruto covered his ears as the fangirls let out their cries of joy and tried to actually watch him, because while he knew that Sasuke had time to think about hitting the multiple targets also. He probably had something to work with,

Sasuke went for the shuriken? Naruto looked curiously, wondering what he planned to do with it, seeing as everyone else had chosen the kunai. Sasuke then stood at the line and drew his arm back,

Throwing all three at once.

Hitting all three at once.

'I guess he just wants to put on a show then,' Naruto winced as the screams of fangirlism continued, 'Either that, or he doesn't get it either.'

Sasuke then proceeded to go with the shuriken again, throwing all three and hitting all three again. But as he threw the last bunch (at the same time, again) he missed horribly, cutting one of the wooden posts for one fo the dummies but hitting the other two,

'Haha,' Naruto laughed to himself as Sasuke realized he did less than perfect, 'Priceless-'

Wait. That was it!

"Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto walked over to and picked up the three shuriken, moving to go to the line but hesitating, "Iruka-sensei?"

"What Naruto?"

"You aren't allowed to fix the posts during the middle of the exam right?"

"Umm… Why Naruto-"

"Just asking," Naruto grinned widely as he walked to the line, putting a single shuriken in his hand before throwing it,

Taking out the pole that held one of the dummies up.

Naruto smiled as some of the other students laughed or criticized his throwing, 'They have no idea,'

Naruto then threw a second shuriken, low, low enough to skim the top off of the one dummy he knocked down while hitting another.

"Two points!" Iruka smiled, someone had finally figured it out,

And Naruto no less.

The other students gaped in awe as Naruto threw his last shuriken the same way, and then went to grab more, grabbing three more shuriken and knocking down the other dummy with the first, then, in a surprising show of skill, hit all three with a dingle shuriken.

Oh yeah, take that Academy!

Iruka gaped as he gave Naruto another four points, bringing Naruto up to 8 points. Already tied with Sasuke and the other good throws of the class. This time though, he picked up a single kunai, and before anyone could argue he flung it, and took a chip off of two of the dummies before hitting the third.

Bringing him up to a total of 15 points. Heck yeah!

Naruto was so excited he ignored the looks of the other classmates and just stood in the back while Iruka told them that the third test would be inside, but Naruto didn't care, he just scored over 100% on an academy

Final.

Nothing could stand in his way.

0-0-0

The world was such a horrible, cruel place.

Naruto just didn't believe it. After all that hard work and effort today, he had actually FAILED his final overall score. He had failed the bunshin test (as usual), and apparently the same applied on his written exam.

'How… I was so close…' Naruto had since sat himself on the swing outside the academy as he watched the other kids meet their parents, some of them gave him those same looks. _Those_ looks, 'I did everything right except the Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique) dang it! I even got over 100% on the projectiles test to make up for the bunshin since I knew I couldn't do that,'

"Squirt?" Naruto looked up in time to see a massive hand come down and pick him up in a headlock, "Why so down, you did your best and you know it!"

"Ichigo…" Naruto said lifelessly, "I failed the test. I'm not a genin-"

"I don't want to hear you so down," Ichigo picked up the younger teen and put him over his shoulder, "It's depressing, you and Yuzu are supposed to be the cheery ones. I'm not good at this cheering people up stuff."

"Yeah I can tell-OW!" Naruto found his hair ruffled harder, "Will you stop that?"

"Not until YOU cheer up," Ichigo replied, "How the heck am I going to come home and show around a depressed Naruto? Rukia would kill me!"

"Is she home?"

"Actually I'm not sure," Ichigo thought for a moment, "I don't think she's out on a mission, but she wasn't at the stand and I didn't see her at home this morning,"

"Well then put me down~" Naruto struggled to be free of his older-brother figure, "Come on, Yuzu and Karin might see-"

"Eh? Karin and Yuzu?" Naruto started to sweat as he recognized the threatening tone, "Good idea Naru-"

"Kawarimi! (Body Replacement Technique!)"

"Naruto?" Ichigo looked on his shoulder and found a log stump, he sighed, "I swear I shouldn't have told him I couldn't do this stupid ninjitsu stuff… I swear,"

0-0-0

"So we have enough for three genin teams this year,"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," The head instructor of the academy replied, "After looking through the list of applicants for Jonin instructor and the list of those who passed, I made a few general lists of teams that could be formed."

"Thank you, you're dismissed,"

"Hai!" the jonin instructor walked out, closing the door behind him.

Finally alone in peace Sarutobi sighed, He had heard Naruto performed excellently on the projectiles test, but his failure of the other two fields was the only thing holding him back. Since he had come back and found out about the attack the villagers attempted on Naruto while he was gone he had made sure to bump up his support chain, having him grow close to the Kurosaki's made his life easier, Rukia was an excellent Chunin, and he knew about Ichigo's 'special status' as he put it.

But apparently that was not enough.

Knock-knock!

"Come in," Sarutobi watched the door open and Rukia come in, "What do you have to report?"

Rukia did not smile, "A lot."

Sarutobi leaned forward on his desk and motioned her to close the door, "Let's hear it."

0-0-0

"Ichi-nii!"

"Hm?" Ichigo turned to see Yuzu running up to him,

"Have you seen Naruto anywhere? He wasn't looking too happy when I last saw him,"

"I saw him Yuzu," Ichigo motioned to the log on his shoulder, "But he got away. He'll show up when he's ready."

"I'm just worried," Yuzu said softly, "Something feels wrong nii-san,"

Ichigo ruffled his sisters hair before pulling her next to him, "Don't worry, Naruto will be fine. He'll show up eventually,"

Naruto watched the two of them walk down the street towards Ichiraku's for a while before moving on,

"Naruto!"

Naruto saw one of his other nice teachers, Mizuki, walk up next to him, "Thank goodness, I was worried I wouldn't find you,"

"Something wrong sensei?"

"No, but I have to tell you something," Mizuki grabbed the shoulders of his student and smiled encouragingly, "Naruto, you can still become a genin!"

"What?"

0-0-0

"_Before I tell you the rest, I have to tell you that you scored the highest overall average of all the other students that didn't pass,"_

Naruto remembered Mizuki's words bringing a light to his eyes as he walked through the shadowed hallways of the Hokage's mansion, making sure he wasn't seen by anyone,

_"There's a special program that is given to the student that was closest to becoming genin but didn't pass the test,"_ Naruto found the door he was looking for, the 'big red door with the sign,' and used Henge (Transformation Technique) to turn into a mouse and scurry under the door,

_"If you can take the Scroll of Seals and learn one of its Jutsu, you are promoted to genin automatically."_

_ "Really Mizuki-sensei?" _Naruto scurried along the floor, eventually seeing what he was looking for, _"Will I really be able to become a genin?"_

Naruto released the technique and grabbed the scroll, heading back through the door he had just been through,

_ "Naruto, you were _destined_ to be a genin,"_

0-0-0

It was late,

Not _that_ late, but it was around 8pm, and he didn't like working past 7pm, since he could do most of this at home, where he could fall asleep while doing his paperwork in peace. After that conversation with Rukia he needed to get some sleep-

It wasn't something that would require his immediate attention with all of ANBU on the alert,

Knock-Kncok!

'Who could this be?' "Come in,"

The door opened and in came Yuzu,

"Why hello there Yuzu," Sarutobi greeted the girl as she walked over to his desk, "Is there something you needed?"

"I've made my decision, I know Karin already came here and made hers, but I'm ready."

"Alright then," Sarutobi took out a sheet of paper and one of his writing utensils, "What's it going to be?"

0-0-0

"Ichigo," Ayame looked over to her co-worker as the stand started to close down, "It's been a long time since you said Naruto ought to be here. Something's wrong,"

"I know," Ichigo looked up at the sky as the two left the stand, locking it as they left, "I'm worried too."

"Yuzu came by earlier, and Karin went straight home," Ayame started counting on her fingers, "But Naruto hasn't shown up and Rukia hasn't been seen all day. Something is really strange."

"I'm going to go home real quick," Ichigo pulled his meat cleaver over his back, attaching a strap for it as well, "And then I'm going to look for him."

"Be careful,"

0-0-0

"HOKAGE-SAMA!"

The old man looked up from the young girl infront of him to see a distressed member of ANBU stand in his doorway,

"The Scroll of Seals is gone!"

"What?" Sarutobi stood up from his desk, "How did this happen?"

"Apparently the guard was home sick and was unable to report it," the ANBU replied, "But we have reports as to the thief,"

"Who?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

Yuzu looked at him in shock while Sarutobi clenched his desk, "This is bad, get a searching party bring both him and the scroll back in Konoha As quickly as you can!"

"Hai!"

The ANBU disappeared and Sarutobi started going through his drawers of paperwork with a newfound energy,

"Naruto would never steal something important like that Hokage-sama!" Yuzu said, anxiety all over her face, "You know that, right?"

"Yuzu, This is something that I had been warned about earlier," The Hokage finally managed to find what he was looking for, pulling out a crystal ball and setting it on his desk, "But I didn't believe it until recently,"

"What is it?"

"A very, very bad man is trying to take something of ours," Sarutobi put his hat on his desk as he motioned for Yuzu to come closer, "Come, help me look for him,"

0-0-0

'Alright, I think I got it!' Naruto put the scroll down as the smoke began to disperse into the regular air, revealing Naruto, tired and beaten, with a grin plastered on his face, 'I wonder if the next one will be as quick-'

"Naruto?"

"Iruka-sensei?" Naruto looked up and saw his teacher standing there with horror in his eyes, "Why did you have to find me now? I only got to learn one jutsu!"

'He's been learning jutsu from the Scroll of Seals?' Iruka jumped down and walked over to him, "Why did you steal the scroll Naruto? This isn't like you at all,"

"Don't you know about the make-up test sensei?" Naruto looked at Iruka, and seeing as he was more shocked than he previously was he rolled up the scroll as fast as he could, "Should have known it was a trick, Mizuki-sensei made it sound so believable too,"

"Mizuki-GAH!"

Naruto turned around in horror as he saw Mizuki walk into the clearing, his hand returning to his side as his giant shuriken impaled Iruka,

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw him throw it, but couldn't believe it until it had actually been done,

"There you are Naruto," Mizuki walked up to Iruka and kicked him to the ground as he tried to stand, only worsening his condition, "I was wondering where my scroll went. You can hand it over now."

"B-but the test…" Naruto tried to process the chain of events that had just unfolded, "The entire thing… was a lie?"

"Oh, don't worry about getting the headband brat," Mizuki took of his hitae-ate and threw it at Naruto in a sinlge motion, hitting him in the head and knocking him backwards, "You can have mine."

Naruto sat up, grolwing through his clenched teeth, "Don't like mine?" Mizuki mocked him, "Well then maybe you can have Iruka's in a bit, he doesn't look too well does he?"

Enraged, Naruto threw himself at his teacher launching a fist out and attempting to smash his face in, only for him to gracefully dodge him,

"That all you got?" Mizuki landed a kick to Naruto's side, sending him hurtling into a nearby tree, "Why aren't you showing any of your true power de-"

"Enough Mizuki,"

Naruto looked up from his position on the ground to see another man in a Konoha hitae-ate approach, although this person he had never seen before. He had silver hair kept back in a ponytail and large, circular glasses. From what Naruto could tell on from his position on the ground the majority of his clothing was purple,

"We don't need him to actually access its power, _he_ needs him to be less than worthy of an opponent."

"This brat? A worthy opponent?" Mizuki motioned over to Naruto and laughed, "Nonsense, No way he could ever do anything to touch him!"

"We both know that that is not true," The silver haired shinobi walked over to Naruto, kneeling down infront of him, "How does it feel? To see those who you love die right infront of you?"

Naruto just clenched his fists harder, waiting for the man to come close enough for him to smash his face in,

"It's your own fault he's dead."

Naruto's instincts kicked in and he threw his fist out, aiming to break the man's glasses,

Then everything went black.

0-0-0

"For telling me to lay off that was certainly an interesting choice of methods Kabuto," Mizuki commented on his new ally, "But it is easier of the kid is knocked out I guess."

"Grab the scroll and get ready to move," Kabuto said, ignoring his comment, "I don't think we have much time before they start catching up."

"You're damn right about that!" The two looked up to see a tall teen with orange hair approach them with a large meat cleaver approaching them, accompanied by a small pug with a Konoha hitae-ate and a blue jacket with a white face on the back, "Go Pakkun, let them know where to bring the medics,"

"**Good luck Ichigo**," The dog disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the three men to face off,

"So then," Ichigo lifted the meat cleaver off of his shoulder and pointed in their direction, "Who wants to dance first?"

"Mizuki, put the boy and the scroll down," Kabuto motioned to his accomplice, "He need to dispose of this fool quickly if we want to get to the meeting place on time. Time is a nessecity,"

"Of course," The Chunin stepped up besides the other man and smirked, "I know about you boy, and you're pretty brave to come and face off against two ninja when you can't use ninjitsu."

"I may not be able to use Ninjitsu," Ichigo replied, "But against wimps like you, who needs to?"

"Don't underestimate me!" Mizuki grabbed the second giant shuriken off his back and flung it at Ichigo, causing him to move his sword to block it, only to find Kabuto come at him from behind,

'This is going to suck,' Ichigo managed to turn in time to smack Kabuto with the blunt of the blade, only to hit a log as he cursed his ability to not use chakra,

0-0-0

"Naruto?" Kakashi replied, stunned, "They're after Naruto?"

"**Apparently,**" Pakkun replied, having used a reverse summoning technique to appear before Kakashi, "**And Ichigo is fighting them now, It also looks like another Konoha shinobi was gravely injured when we got there; he needs back up or he at least needs someone to take care of Iruka.**"

"Then I'll get their as soon as I can," The man dismissed his summon and went in pursuit of his pupil,

'Dawgone it Ichigo, always getting yourself in these troublesome situations,'

0-0-0

CLANG!

Ichigo held Kabuto at bay with his sword, the man was rather agile on his feet for a genin, he seemed to be faster than most chunin,

"GAH!"

Ichigo saw Kabuto suddenly twitch in pain and swung out, knocking him to the ground. At first he felt victorious and moved to kill the traitor, only for Mizuki to jump him from behind, causing him to turn and block his blow instead,

"Fatigue closing in traitors?" Ichigo asked as he batted away Mizuki with ease, as he had the entire fight, "Or maybe I'm just too good?"

"I'm getting tired of this,"

Ichigo turned around to see Kabuto standing up from where he had thrown him, cracking his neck,

"That pain I had back their was from me taking off my own limits," He smirked, "Now you will pay,"

"Chakura no Mesu! (Chakra Scapel!)"

'What the-'

Ichigo ducked as he heard the technique being called out, barely avoiding the swipe of several thin, blue blades of chakra. He rolled through his dodge in an attempt to come back up and swipe at him, but Kabuto backflipped onto his blade as Ichigo looked in awe, unsure of how much power this guy really had,

"Well then," Kabuto threw his foot forward, kicking Ichigo in the face, "Believe me now?"

Ichigo stumbled back, trying to regain his focus, only for Kabuto to follow up and continuing his assault, forcing him to drop his weapon

"Chakura no Mesu (Chakra Scapel) is a technique that can be used to perform surgery without actually piercing the skin," Kabuto lectured Ichigo as he continued to smash him around the forest, "Which is something I will show you in a moment,"

Activating the technique his hands began to glow blue, seeing it coming Ichigo tried to jump out of his reach, but to no avail as he was hit in the stomach,

"GAH!" Ichigo was flung back hard as he held his stomach, trying to reduce the pain by clutching it, causing Kabuto to laugh,

"Can't take a hit my friend?" Kabuto looked at Ichigo with an evil gleam in his eye, "Well then, I'll have to fix that, I hear that hell holds many a people like you-"

Kabuto took out a kunai and threw it at Ichigo, who ducked and rolled away from it just in time for it to pierce the tree where his head had been,

"Stupid ass," Ichigo commented, standing up slowly, "Taking up so much of my time,"

"What was that?" Kabuto mocked him in reply, "I thought I heard a grunt of pain somewhere,"

"Yeah me too," Ichigo nodded, taking out a red glove from his pocket, "It sounded like your immediate future,"

Ichigo pulled on the glove, showing a picture of a white skull with a blue flame in the background,

"I think it's time I took this seriously too," Ichigo reached out the hand with his glove on it, and an eerie blue light began to form near his hands "Zanpakutoū Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Zangetsu! (Soul-Cutting Sword Summoning Art: Slaying Moon!)"

0-0-0

"Iruka?" Kakashi jumped to the forest floor when he saw the fallen instructor, "Hey, stay with me!"

FWOOOOOOOSH!

Kakashi ducked as a giant shuriken embedded itself in the tree in front of him. Pulling it out and turning around Kakashi found himself facing Mizuki, "What would the Scroll of Seals possibly give you that would make you go through the effort to have Naruto steal it?"

The instructor laughed heartily, despite his many wounds, "A chance to join Orochimaru-"

Mizuki suddenly felt a burning sensation in his gut, and when he looked down he found a kunai buried to the hilt in his stomach,

And there was a note tied to the back of the kunai,

Looking up angrily Mizuki stared into the eyes of his superior, "So you want to deny me my dream, Copy-nin Kakashi?"

"Why 'want' when I already have?" Kakashi held up his left hand in a familiar hand sign, "Kai! (Release!)"

'No…' Mizuki said to himself as he faded into nothingness, 'This can't be the end!'

'I will not die here!'

Kakashi had turned back to Iruka as the explosion rocked the forest, because as everyone knows, you never look at your own explosions. Looking over his fallen comrade Kakashi went through several hand seals,

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu! (Summoning Technique!)"

In a puff of smoke a large dog appeared, easily as big as a human lengthwise,

"Take him back to Konoha for immediate treatment; you can tell he needs it," Kakashi said as he loaded the man on his dog before sending him back to Konoha,

'Now where are you, Ichigo?'

0-0-0

'What type of power was that?' Kabuto asked himself as he struggled to stand, with one arm missing, his body in severe shape, 'How did I lose?'

Ichigo calmly walked over to Kabuto, kicking him in the chest roughly, "Hey hey? Not dying on me are you?"

Kabuto clenched his teeth as the teen crouched infront of him and he was unable to attempt a counterattack,

"Because you aren't going to die today buddy,"

Ichigo hoisted Kabuto in the air by his throat, looking him straight in the eye,

"No, it would be too easy to kill you now, but I have a better idea. I'm going to let you go back to your master to explain why you failed. I'm going to let you go tell him that he messed with the wrong people today. He messed with my people."

"Heh, you say that like you would protect the entire world," Kabuto replied weakly, chuckling as he went along, "If you say that, than you accept that you have to protect everyone, it's a fools dream!"

"It may be to you," Ichigo continued to stare him in the eyes, "But I know that, I'm not the Fourth Hokage, I'm certainly not Ridoku Senin. I could never protect everyone in the world,"

"But then again, I don't want to say that I can protect as many people as I can hold up and say it's fine, I want to protect a mountainload of people,"

Ichigo put his face in Kabuto's as he clenched his throat harder, "And tell your boss that this country is off limits. Got it?"

Kabuto was thrust to ground in a single motion and Ichigo turned around, leaving Kabuto to go back and find Naruto,

"Whoa," Ichigo turned to see Naruto lying next to a tree looking at him with complete awe, "I never new you could be so badass Ichigo…"

Realizing he had been caught, he palmed his face and sighed, "Naruto, you can't tell Yuzu and Karin about what you just saw, ok?"

"Why not?" Naruto asked, "What's so wrong about it?"

"It's a secret Naruto,"

Naruto looked up to see Kakashi jump down from the tree he was leaning against, causing him to open his eyes widely,

"Where's Iruka-sensei? I he-"

"I've sent him off to the hospital Naruto, don't worry," Kakashi walked over to him and gave him his traditional eye-smile, "I got it covered,"

"In what? Icha-Icha-OW!" Naruto cradeled his head as Kakashi pulled back his hand, "What? Its true!"

"That is also a secret Naruto," Kakasahi informed him, "I swear, if Rukia heard that name she would try to kill me again. Believe me that is NOT fun."

"Yes it is," Naruto replied as Ichigo came over, helping stand him up, "Rukia makes you look like me! What part of that isn't fun?"

"Shut up Naruto, or prepare yourself for Sennen Goroshi (One Thousand Years of Death)"

"Fine then," Naruto replied as Ichigo put him over his shoulder, "Hey come on, isn't their some other way I could come hom-"

"Nope."

"Come on Ichigo, I thought you were my friend!"

"I am," Ichigo replied dryly, "I am your tired, dreary, worn out friend that just wiped ass all over the forest floor for you. Now be quite on the way home before I make you."

0-0-0

"It seems that they made it ok," Yuzu sighed at the Hokage's words, feeling at ease with his words, "But you need to go home, you'll need your strength for the morning,"

"Ok," Yuzu turned around and walked out the door, "Bye Hokage-sama!"

"Good night Yuzu," Sarutobi yawned as the door shut, leaning back in his chair, 'I hope no one minds if I just go to sleep in my chair… what a day…'

0-0-0

Two figures stood in silence near a shrine , while their features were dark, one was standing tall while the other was hunched over badly, both of them seemed impatient,

"It seems you've failed," the shorter figure said in a deep, gruff voice, "You should have sent someone more competent to deal with the situation. It seems your henchmen is alive though, leave someone here to collect him while we move on." The man started to walk away, "That was a complete waste of time, Orochimaru."

"I am sorry for my subordinates failure Sasori," the Snake Sannin replied, turning around and following him, "But they shall be punished later, what happens now?"

"We report to leader-sama," Sasori replied, "I don't think he is happy on our little outing, I think he wanted you hidden from sight longer than this,"

"Then we shall meet him," Orochimaru continued to walk into the dark forest out of sight, his black coat and red clouds now visible in the waiving wind,

'I will not forget this insult, Kurosaki Ichigo.'

**X=X=X**

**Cut!**

** So how was it? Please leave a review since I don't want to just sit here and leave this story to possibly die, please review!**

** Couple of important notes to this chapter;**

** -Yes, Naruto is smart in this fic. Having people telling you to work hard makes it easier for smartNaruto fics.**

** -****Zanpakutoū Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Soul-Cutting Sword Summoning Art)**** is a 'technique,' not a ninjitsu, but that will also be described in more detail later, but soon. (Also, Rukia can use it too!) Also, Ichigo did not summon Pakkun, sorry if that was confusing, Kakashi contributed to the search by letting several ninken accompany the searchers while he waited for a response at Konoha, so he could make his way there.**

** -Not KakaIru, that was just how the scene played out. Sorry if it seemed that way.**

** -The whole story of how Kakashi is related to the Kurosaki's is something to be explored in later chapters, and it will.**

** -This fic is using an alternation dealing with Orochimaru; he did not attack Itachi and/or leave Akatsuki, so he is still a member! This was originally meant to bring in a huge fight amongst the various characters, but I decided it was too soon. This will have major effects on later plots!**

** -Rukia made no appearance in this chapter, and this was a bummer to me, since she is actually one of the more fun characters to play with since adding her to the story, but she will play an important role in later chapters!**

** Also, thank you everyone who reviewed the story, since that was the only reason I could get this chapter out (would have been sooner if I had not been met with rl)**

** ~Crunch! (Random Cookies) :D**


	3. Ch3: Team: I isn't their!

**To be simple I'm going to put a generic disclaimer here: If I owned Naruto, Bleach, or anything that earned me money, I would try to introduce too many unique ideas and have that position taken away from me, so the only thing I own is the plot and a few OC's**

**Chapter Three! Might write up a bit of Tofw-WoF before I get a fourth chapter up but hey, you never know…**

**Demons/Summoning/Powerful People (like me :P)**

_Flashback/EMPHASIS_

Jutsu/Kido/Techniques

Ch3: Team: I isn't their!

Smell had always been Naruto's favorite sense really- it alerted him to Ramen within his direct vicinity, it played a major part in his taste buds, and simply put, 'the nose knows!' and after getting to know them so well Naruto immediately recognized,

The microwave

Naruto drooled as his eyes cracked open, seeing that he was home, on his couch, under one of his blankets, laying comfortably as his microwave cooked instant ramen,

"Hey, you up yet?" Rukia poked her head into Naruto's living room, where he was sleeping, "You better get dressed, Hokage wants to see you."

"Jiji?" Naruto drowsily got up, walking past Rukia into his room, which was adjacent to the living room and the hallway between lead to his kitchen, "What does he want?"

"I don't know," Rukia replied, going back into the kitchen as the timer started beeping, "Just get yourself ready- doesn't look like Ichigo just threw you on the couch when he got here,"

"He might have," Naruto threw on a new pair of clothes; exactly the same as before (jiji had gotten him multiple copies after the incident when he met the Kurosaki's, since he didn't want Naruto to have to lose his favorite jacket again), "I think I fell asleep on the way back, I was tired,"

"You were sleeping like a rock when I got here," Rukia yelled back from the kitchen, "Ramen's ready, come get it when you're hungry,"

"Bye Rukia-neechan!" Naruto shouted as he heard his front door close behind him, signifying her leave, 'Wonder what jiji wants me for this early in the morning…'

0-0-0

"What?" Naruto couldn't believe his ears as he sat in the Hokage's office, "I seriously made Genin?"

"For more than one reason Naruto," the Hokage said, pulling out a paper from his desk, handing it to Naruto, "Is this the test you took during the written portion?"

"This?" Naruto looked at the first question and immediately shook his head, "No, the first question on my test said something about a parabola,"

"This was the Academy Genin Test Naruto," Naruto looked at him with a gaping mouth as the Hokage continued, "Mizuki managed to give you a phony test, and the test you completed actually gave you a passing grade. That is the first reason why you can become a genin,"

"No wonder that was so hard," Naruto sulked for a moment over the fact that he actually had to do all that work when it wasn't worth anything, "What else?"

"The second reason is that Iruka mentioned you learning a technique from the Scroll of Seals," Sarutobi leaned in and asked him seriously, "Naruto, what jutsu did you learn out of that scroll?"

"It was a bunshin (clone) technique," Naruto replied, putting his hands together in a hand seal, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone Technique!)"

Next to Naruto appeared five live, healthy clones that proceeded to all grin madly- wait, who was the original?

"This is the other reason Naruto," Sarutobi motioned him to sit down, and Naruto dismissed his clones and sat down, "I imagined you would start with the first technique in the scroll, which is a bunshin technique. Even if you failed the actual genin test, that is something to be worthy in noticing,"

Naruto looked at him, somewhat stunned, "So I'm becoming a genin because of my awesomeness?"

"Well- erm…" The Hokage tried to reword the phrase, but found that he was right in his own respect, "I guess you could say that,"

"Cool," Naruto leaned back in his chair, "So what now?"

"Well Naruto your graduation ceremony begins in…" Sarutobi looked up at the clock on the wall behind Naruto before smiling, "5 minutes ago,"

"WHAT?" Naruto got up and turned to look at the clock before running out the door. Two minutes later he reappeared,

"Where is it anyway?"

0-0-0

"Naruto?" The instructor asked himself as he read off the attendance, "He graduated? I thought he had failed,"

The gathered students began to talk amongst themselves as Karin smirked, she had an idea of what was going on anyways. Looking to her side she sighed,

"Hinata, you really have to fix this problem someday," the girl jumped as she realized Karin was frowning in her direction, "You're a little too old to be having these random blushing fits whenever you hear his name,"

"S-sorry Karin-san," Hinata held her head, "I-it's just,"

"It's ok Hinata," Hinata looked up to see Karin smiling, "I was just teasing you,"

"O-oh,"

Karin looked forward to the teacher as he finished up the attendance, sometimes her friend was just too easy to mess with, but then again she was just too feeble, after a year in the academy she couldn't get her to lose it,

"Team 7 will consist of…"

Karin stopped her train of thought as she leaned forward, 'This better be good,'

0-0-0

"Made it!"

"Naruto Uzumaki-?" The instructor stopped and turned to the door, seeing the person he had called standing in the doorway, "You're late, sit as we call the teams,"

"Not my fault Jiji kept me 5 minutes late," Naruto grumbled as he walked over to an empty seat, which happened to be next to none other than Shikamaru, 'Of course he's sleeping, what was I thinking?'

"Sakura Haruno," a groan of protest was heard amongst a small snickering from Ino, the only other fangirl present, "and Sasuke Uchiha,"

A grunt of disappointment, a cry of blasphemy, and a squeal of joy was heard as Naruto held his head, 'How could I get the worst possible team-'

"-and your Jonin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake,"

"YES!" Everyone in the room looked at Naruto, who had his hands in the air victoriously, "HA! Take that Karin, told you Kakashi liked me over you,"

"Good for you then," Karin waved him off, "Have fun with the pervert sensei then,"

"You just say that because he reads those books-"

"ENOUGH!" The instructor yelled, causing Naruto to sit down after grumbling about stupid team arrangements,

Looking over to her friend, Karin tried to cheer up her friend, "Don't worry Hinata, Naruto will be fine,"

"Team 8 will consist of Hinita Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Karin Kurosaki, with the Jonin sensei Kurenai Yuhi,"

"Huh?" Sakura looked at the instructor questionably, "A genin team with four members? I've never heard of that before,"

"While it is not something we like to do, sometimes the number of excellent graduates is too good to trim down," the instructor replied, "This year is one of those years, it would have been a perfect setup of teams but we had a slight change in the graduation roster it seems," the instructor coughed loudly, "Team 10 will consist of,"

"Wait, Team 10?" Naruto called out from his seat, "that doesn't even make sense! Why the sudden jump? Where's team 9?"

"Shut up Naruto!" Sakrua yelled back at him from her seat, "Let him talk!"

'Geez,' Naruto leaned back in his seat as the Instructor announced the last team, even after a year of befriending Yuzu she still hated his guts-

Speaking of which,

"Shikamaru Nara, Chouji Akimichi, and Ino Yamanaka under the Jonin Asuma Sarutobi,"

"Wait a minute," Naruto stood up again, "Where's Yuzu on that list? I know she graduated, she topped the friggin class in the Bunshin (Clone) and written portions!"

"T-That is true," The instructor looked over his list for several seconds, "She isn't on the list-"

"I can explain that,"

"Hokage-sama?"

Into the Academy room walked Sarutobi Hiruzen and Yuzu Kurosaki, causing Naruto to stand up,

"It's ok, I just wanted to let Yuzu have this chance to explain the situation to her peers herself," The instructor bowed and stepped back, allowing Yuzu to step infront of the class,

"Hi guys," Yuzu waved at her class with a bright smile on her face, "You all passed the exam, congrats! You are all official ninja! I may have passed the exam, but I don't really want to be a ninja, and I never planned to be, I just attended school because it was something that would be useful for me in the future," she bowed infront of the class, "Good luck you guys! I'll see you around!"

Yuzu stood up and waved again, exiting the room. The Hokage soon followed, "I also wish you the best of luck in your beginnings as genin, may the Will of Fire be strong in you,"

He sent a smile at the young crowd before leaving, not shutting the door behind him however, as two jounin could be seen outside the door,

"Well then," the instructor continued, "Assemble in your teams and wait for your instructors, some of which seem to be here," after looking out the door briefly the instructor waved, "Have fun kids,"

The instructor walked out of the door, quickly replaced by a woman with flowing black hair and red eyes dressed in a white and red dress that seemed to be merged with two separate cloths,

"I am the instructor of Team 8, and this is my assistant chunin, Rukia Kuchiki, so please follow me,"

Naruto deadpanned as he saw Rukia walk in, dressed in her Chunin outfit, and stand next to her,

"Hah!" Karin pointed in Naruto's direction and laughed, "You can take the pervert- I got Rukia-neechan!"

"Kakashi's teaching Naruto's squad?" Rukia looked between her two sibling-figures and sighed, "Kurenai-san I'll be right back,"

Rukia disappeared in a swirl of leaves as the other students looked in awe, only for Naruto to smirk,

'Take that Kakashi-baka, you were going to come late again weren't you?' Naruto cackled evilly in his mind, 'Too bad for you, Rukia-neechan's going to kick your ass for it,'

"In the meantime, Team 10 can come with me," a tall, tan-skinned man (similar to Iruka's skin tone, he noted) walked in. He was dressed in the standard jounin uniform, and had black hair that came down his sideburns and made a short, pointed beard, "I'm Sarutobi Asuma and I will be your sensei!"

"Troublesome," Shikamaru mumbled as he got up and walked down to the front, "Later Naruto,"

"See you later," Naruto saluted weakly as his friends filed out, leaving him, Sakura, and Sasuke,

"Sasuke-kun," Naruto didn't even bother to look up as he knew the conversation by heart already, "Do you want to go out on a date with me?"

"Hn."

"Well, what about after we get out from practice then?" Naruto groaned inwardly as the conversation began to drone on, 'Where are you Rukia-neechan, save me already,'

"Well what about next week on Saturday?"

"Hn."

"Hello there, I am Kakashi Hatake and I will be-OW!" Naruto turned around as he realized his salvation was here, seeing Kakashi in the doorway, holding his head as Rukia retracted her fist,

"Just make sure he behaves Naruto," Rukia smiled at Naruto before turning to Kakashi, "And I'll make sure your collection doesn't burn."

Naruto started to laugh out loud as Rukia disappeared, leaving Kakashi in a cold sweat,

"Man Kakashi, Rukia really got you there," Naruto continued to laugh as the jounin attempted to recover control of the show,

"My first impression… You suck. I wish I got that Rukia lady," Sasuke commented from his seat, "She seemed stronger than you."

"She really is strong," Kakashi replied, "But she is no ordinary chunin, she could fight most decent jounin and win with her level of strength. Great power does not always mean great teaching Sasuke."

Sasuke let out another famous 'Hn.' Before Kakashi motioned upward, "Meet you all on the roof then, later!"

0-0-0

"Took you all long enough," Kakashi commented as his students came onto the roof, "I think I read an entire chapter before you all came up here? What's up?"

"There isn't a stairwell to the roof," Naruto sent him a look of disappointment, "Why did we need to come up here?"

"Oh, I just enjoy the fresh air and the cool breeze," Kakashi gave an eye smile as he waved off the question, "Anyway, how about we have a little introduction section, tell us your name, likes, dislikes, and hobbies, and dreams. Let's start with you pinky,"

"My name is Sakura Haruno," She said cheerfully, "My likes are…" She looked at Sasuke, "My dislikes are, Naruto,"

"I object!"

"And my hobbies are," she looked at Sasuke, again, "My dream is to," She looked at Sasuke with a mad blush on her face and Narutofelt himself wanting to gag,

"Oi, your turn duck-butt," Sasuke gave Naruto one of his famous evil glares before continuing,

"As you all know, I am Sasuke Uchiha. My like, dislikes, and hobbies are my own business, but I have a dream to kill a certain man."

'That was a waste of breath,' Naruto sighed before saying his part, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I like Ramen, Rukia-neechan, Ichigo-niisan, and the rest of my friends at Ichiraku, Jiji, and maybe Kakashi,"

Kakashi deadpanned him as he continued, "I dislike the time it takes for ramen to cook, and when Ichigo accidentally lets to Ramen burn. My hobbies are watching Rukia-neechan kick everybodies asses, hanging out with my friends, eating ramen, and playing soccer. My dream is to eat all the ramen in the world."

"Wait…" Sakura cut in, "I thought you wanted to be Hokage? Wasn't that your dream?"

"That isn't a dream Sakura," Naruto smiled back, "That's an accomplishment; its set in stone already and there's no changing it."

"All right then," Kakashi spoke up, "Now, for today we will-"

"You didn't go yet Kakashi!"

Kakashi sighed as Naruto pointed accusingly in his direction, "Fine Naruto, I'll go,"

"My name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes, dislikes, hobbies, and dreams are all things I would rather keep to myself. That is all."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Wait, does this mean that I was the only person to answer all the questions? What the heck?" Naruto narrowed his eyes on his teacher, "Remember that your books are on the line here,"

"So is your status as a genin,"

"What?" Sakura questioned her sensei's words as they emerged from his mouth, "But we're already-"

"You are not official yet," Kakashi leaned back in his position on the roof, "Do you really think that the ten of you are the only genin to graduate this year? Out of a generation of at least fifty students? That's a pretty high fail rate, no, the majority of the academy passes and is assigned to teams like this one," Kakashi continued, "There were atleast 45 genin to pass this exam, however, that is too much, we only want several teams."

"So, there's still a fail rate…" Sakura started to calculate the imaginary numbers in her head, "But then,"

"I have the authority to send you back to the academy if I don't think you're ready to be genin," Kakashi looked at them seriously, "I have been attempting to take a team of genin for a while now… and never once have I passed a team."

"Ok then," Naruto joined in, "So what do we do to pass?"

"You will all meet me in Training Ground Seven and I will test your skills to see which of you will be able to become genin," Kakashi stood up as he talked, walking away from his team,

"Oh, and don't eat anything… You'll just have it come out during the test."

In a swirl of leaves Kakashi was gone, leaving the three genin to themselves,

"Ok, look," Naruto said, trying to get his teammates attention, "I know we don't like each other, I know that both of you hate me, but we're a team now. He have to work together, and this test sounds fishy to me,"

"Hn."

"It does, but…" Sakura trailed on, "I have to get home, we've been out here for a while and they might be worried,"

"Alright then," he waved as the one teammate decided to leave, "Later Sakura-chan!"

As the pinky left the immediate area Naruto turned to Sasuke, "I know that you hate everyone in this team Sasuke, but if no one can do anything without the aid of another. This test is something that is going to test our _teamwork_" Naruto continued, trying to get a reaction from his new teammate, "We all need to work together in order to pass."

"What do you know… dobe," Sasuke walked past Naruto and left as well, leaving Naruto to himself on the rooftop,

'Ok then,' Naruto sighed, 'It was worth a shot I guess,'

0-0-0

"Oh, I was wondering why Rukia seemed so angry when she walked in and saw Kakashi," Teuchi chuckled nervously, "But then again, it's not that often we see her mad at anyone but Ichigo,"

Naruto grinned as we "Yeah, we all know Ichigo is a horrible cook,"

"Like you could do better!"

Teuchi and Naruto laughed as Ichigo replied from the back,

"Hey Naruto," Naruto turned around to see Karin come in and sit next to him at the counter, "How was your meeting with the perv?"

"We had an introduction game, I was the only one to speak," Naruto chuckled as he remembered it, "I got to threaten Kakashi's collection via Rukia, and then he threatened to send us back to the academy."

"So I guess it is true then," Karin replied, "Rukia and Kurenai-sensei said similar things to us, about a test tomorrow to determine whether we would actually become genin."

"Something's up though," Naruto stirred his chopsticks in his empty ramen bowl, puzzled, "If Jiji was the one to make me an official genin, not the academy test, than can Kakashi truly override the decision fo the Hokage?"

"He probably didn't plan to have your team Naruto," Karin replied, "The whole process of choosing a genin squad seems to be up in the air, since a jounin can ask for students, but the graduation ceremony is right after the graduation test. If that's the case then they might not get a choice,"

"Maybe they could be prompted though," Naruto let his chin rest in his hand as he tried to think of a solution,

"Well, in any case, we all know you will do well,"

"Thanks Teuchi-jiji,"

"Any time Naruto," The older man looked at the two kids seated in front of him and turned to the back, "Ichigo, you think you can hold the fort for a while? I'm going to see if Ayame is free to come with me on a supply errand,"

"Sure thing boss," Ichigo replied, bringing out two bowls of the infamous ramen and placing them in front of his two 'customers,' "No worries here,"

"Yeah, until the stove sets on fire,"

"Or when I randomly die of food poisoning,"

Ichigo looked at the two younger teens infront of him with evil glares,

"I'll leave it to you then Ichigo,"

"Take care old man!" Teuchi walked out the back, closing the door behind him as he left. Ichigo then turned to the two in front of him, "I'll remember this."

"Remember what Ichi-nii?" Yuzu asked curiously as she appeared on his side of the bar putting on an apron, "Were we teasing you again?"

"Yeah they were-" Ichigo stopped, "Wait, 'we'?"

"Yeah," Yuzu replied, smiling, "Because I agree, your cooking needs work Ichi-nii,"

Ichigo slumped as he leaned on the counter and everyone laughed at his expense,

"Oh yeah Yuzu," Naruto said, breaking out of his laughter first, "I heard what you said at the graduation ceremony and all, but why not be a genin?"

"I knew that would come up eventually," Yuzu walked over and pulled up a stool to sit on, sitting across from Naruto, "So what happened was,"

0-0-0

_"Academy?" Yuzu asked her brother as they walked down the dirt road, not long from where they had laid camp the previous night, "You mean school?"_

_ "Well… Yeah," Ichigo rubbed the back of his head as he walked alongside his two sisters, the rest of his party trailing ahead, "But not quite, apparently they only have school for those who want to become shinobi-"_

_ "You mean like the army?" Yuzu asked frightfully, "That's where Kakashi-san had to go before he became a ninja right? I don't want to be a ninja nii-san,"_

_ "I don't expect you to be, either of you," Ichigo replied, "But I do want you to go their in order to learn a bit about the country and stuff… its only from like, 5-10__th__ grade their, they don't have school for me and Rukia,"_

_ "Lucky… you don't have to go to school,"Karin replied, "I wish I could learn the stuff and move on with my life, usually school is a little boring,"_

_ "Listen," Ichigo said, "The plan is that you both will complete the academy, and after that you can decide for yourselves what you want to do after that, ok?"_

_ Both sisters nodded in unison, "Ok Ichi-nii,"_

0-0-0

"So you chose not to then," Naruto restated her choice to himself, "But why? Because you don't like to fight?"

"I never was much for violence in any form Naruto," Yuzu looked down for a moment, "I hated Taijutsu class, but the simple genjutsu we learned was fun," She looked up and smiled again, "And because I did, I have great friends like you-"

"-and Kakashi?-OW!" Naruto held his head as Yuzu, Karin, and Ichigo retracted their fists, "What? He's so familiar with you all, I thought you would have some sort of friendship with him but gosh, that was cold!"

"It was supposed to be painful, idiot," Karin stated as she turned back to her unfinished bowl of ramen, "He may be a family friend, but at heart he's a cold-blooded pervert. No one can be forgiven of that sin."

"Well, I'll see you all tomorrow," Naruto stretched before jumping off of his stool and walking out of the stand, "Take care!"

"Later Naruto," Yuzu replied as he left, waving energetically,

0-0-0

"Is something wrong Kakashi?"

Standing next to the memorial which honored all Konoha shinobi K.I.A., Kakashi stood in silence as he heard the question asked by the Sandaime, who was standing next to him,

"I'm just worried about my team," Kakashi replied, "I may have both students that I feel would work best under my eyes, but the team already seems dysfunctional,"

"Is that so?" The Third Hokage replied, "Why?"

"Sasuke has yet to get over himself, Sakura has yet to get over him, and both of them dislike Naruto, who has given them a bad impression of me," Kakashi sighed, "Hopefully I can change things around tomorrow,"

"Perhaps,"

The two watched the sun begin to set, causing the Third to turn and leave, "I wish you luck with your team then,"

"Thank you, Hokage-sama,"

Kakashi stood still as the sun removed itself from the sky and the moon replaced it, continuing to stare at the memorial as the town grew dark,

'I will protect them; Minato, Obito, Rin!'

0-0-0

"You are so lucky Rukia-neechan is busy with another team," Naruto said as Kakashi appeared in front of his team in a swirl of leaves, "I would have totally sent her all over your ass!"

"Why were you so late?" Sakura sent him her own death glare, "It's been 2 hours already,"

"Well, I got lost on the road of life," Kakashi chuckled nervously before walking past them into the open field, "Moving on,"

"Here is the exam," Kakashi held up two bells in his hand, "I have decided that only two of you are worthy to pass this exam, so I have with me two bells. But in order to get these bells you must take them from me,"

Kakashi tied the bells to his waist, signifying that it wouldn't be too easy, "At noon the clock I set over their will ring. Whoever does not have a bell by the end of that time shall fail. Ready-"

Not waiting for a response Kakashi snapped his fingers and pulled out an orange book, opening it casually, "Begin,"

Kakashi was not surprised as everyone disappeared into the forest, leaving Kakashi their to read his book, 'Hopefully they can pull it together…'

0-0-0

"Sasuke-"

Naruto immediately found his mouth clogged with Sasuke's hand as the other genin-hopeful attempted to prevent him from giving away their location,

"What do you want dobe?" Sasuke whispered angrily, "Make it quick, and speak low,"

"Sorry," Naruto replied in a whisper, so that only Sasuke could hear it, "Anyway, I figured this whole thing out,"

"What do you mean?"

0-0-0

"Y-you want my help?" Sakura fumbled with her words as she tried to answer her crush,

"Listen Sakura," Naruto cut in, "We need to work together, all of us, to pass this test. That includes you too."

"W-well then…" Sakura continued to fumble with her words as she sat in the brush with Naruto and Sasuke,

"Don't worry Sakura," Sasuke replied, "Naruto and I developed a plan,"

0-0-0

'Does this mean they are actually planning something, or are they all just hiding?' Kakashi sighed as he leaned against the tree, completely into his new book, which he had only received the other day-

"What are you doing?"

Kakashi looked up to see Rukia standing next to him in the clearing, looking reasonably ticked off at him,

"I thought you had a genin test today as well?"

"Oh, I'm just waiting for them to come out," her replied, "I'm giving them the bell test sensei gave me- you didn't tell them about it right?"

"No," Rukia replied, still looking at him, "But where are they? It doesn't look like much of a test when nothing is happening,"

"They have a time limit, but they can manage their time," Kakashi replied dryly, "Besides, I'm in the middle of this fantasti-"

Rukia immediately grabbed the book from him, causing him to immediately reach up to grab it,

"In public?" She looked at the book with disgust while evading the older Jounin's attempts to grab the book back, "Really? And I thought I already had a discussion with you about this,"

Rukia seemed to slip suddenly, allowing for Kakashi to grab the book back-

And for Rukia to reach to his waste and grab the bells from him in response,

"Oi Rukia what the-"

Kakashi stopped as he watched 'Rukia' turn into Naruto, who proceeded to run off into the woods, turning back and revealing two bells in his hands,

"So, I pass right?" Naruto looked at Kakashi triumphantly, "I'll probably give the second bell to Sasuke so he can move on too, depending on how nice he is about it,"

Kakashi sighed as it seemed his efforts to build team affinity had failed, "Well I guess so Naruto but-"

"Great," Naruto proceeded to drop the 'bells,' which turned into Sasuke and Sakura respectively, both of whom were coughing heavily,

"What was the big deal?" Sakura asked Naruto, "You clenched your fist too tight- I couldn't breathe!"

"*Cough* *Cough,* Same dobe…"

Kakashi watched the scene unfold and a smile appeared under his mask, 'That was unexpected,'

"Congratlations then," Kakashi clapped slowly several times as he walked up to his team, "You all pass,"

0-0-0

"I swear Naruto you will be the death of me," Kakashi sighed as Naruto ordered another bowl of Miso Pork Ramen, the tenth so far, "Or at least my wallet,"

"In your wallet?" Ichigo commented from behind the bar, handing Naruto the dish he ordered, "No way, not even with his enourmous appetite, with all those S-class missions you went on in ANBU,"

"Anyway," Kakashi continued, changing the subject, attempting to prevent the encouragement of more Ramen orders, "So starting tomorrow at 9am, be prepared to take missions-"

"Oh yeah!"

"I'm glad to hear your excitement when you haven't even heard what we're doing yet,"

"Well, what are we doing tomorrow Kakashi-sensei?"

"I managed to reserve a specific mission for you guys I'm sure you'll all love," Kakashi started, "You see, there's this cute little cat named Tora…"

X=X=X

Omake: The Bell Test Scandal!

_Dear Diary, Whoever that is…_

_ Rukia-neechan told me that if I ever felt the need to write something down in a diary, so I thought what the heck, I'll give it a try. Not like anything bad could come of it right? This is just between you and me, and since I'm sharing so freely you should feel obligated to keep them._

_ Ok, to start off I just finished the bell test and you wouldn't _believe_ the awesome stunt I pulled!_

0-0-0

"Sasuke-"

Naruto immediately found his mouth clogged with Sasuke's hand as the other genin-hopeful attempted to prevent him from giving away their location,

"What do you want dobe?" Sasuke whispered angrily, "Make it quick, and speak low,"

"Sorry," Naruto replied in a whisper, so that only Sasuke could hear it, "Anyway, I figured this whole thing out,"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I have a way to make us all pass the test,"

Sasuke shrugged him off, but Naruto persisted, "Look, all I need is a small thing from you, and that's it. If it doesn't work then its on me right? And we just started, we have till noon right?"

"Hn." Sasuke replied stubbornly,

Naruto sighed, "Look Sasuke, I was really hoping to save this till a holiday or something but I have the ultimate leverage over you,"

Looking at his teammate curiously Sasuke replied, "What would that be?"

"The Ultimate Fangirl Escape Plan."

"…" Sasuke stood still for a while, "We can talk about this plan of yours later, what's your idea?"

"Use Henge (Transformation Technique) and turn yourself into one of the bells that Kakashi had,"

"That's it?" Naruto nodded as Sasuke looked at him questioningly, "Then what?"

Naruto smirked, "I work my magic,"

0-0-0

"Y-you want my help?" Sakura fumbled with her words as she tried to answer her crush,

"Listen Sakura," Naruto cut in, "We need to work together, all of us, to pass this test. That includes you too."

"W-well then…" Sakura continued to fumble with her words as she sat in the brush with Naruto and Sasuke,

"Don't worry Sakura," Sasuke replied, "Naruto and I developed a plan,"

"You and Naruto?" Sakura replied uncertain, "Absurd! Only Sasuke-kun could come up with a brilliant plan like this!"

'Heh,' The Naruto clone thought as he continued to stare under the guise of his teammate, 'Works every time, just hope boss convinced Sasuke-teme.'

0-0-0

_I could barely keep myself from laughing at Kakashi-sensei while I was keeping myself under Henge (Transformation Technique), I was worried I would just ruin the whole thing right there,_

_ Oh well, until I write next!_

_ -Uzumaki Naruto_

**X=X=X**

**Cut!**

** So how was it? Please leave a review since I don't want to just sit here and leave this story to possibly die, please review!**

** Couple of important notes to this chapter;**

** -For those of you who notice/care I skipped the Konohamaru ark, mostly because he is just so annoying and the ark is really just about him and Naruto doing stupid stuff and using the sexy technique on everybody, so I skipped it. Besides, I want to get to the first REAL ark soon (Waves) because I have so many fun ideas about it now,**

** -Yes, Yuzu is not going to be a genin. It took me a while to think out the team organizations and I just couldn't find a place to put her. Yeah she was on the Karakura Superheroes… but her character was never meant to fight. I don't think that was the intention he had when he designed her (unlike Karin). So I'm keeping her a citizen.**

** -4 man squad with Karin was something I planned on because I didn't want to deal with OC's, while they aren't horrible I don't really want to mix it up any more than it already is with an xover that has its own multitude of 'good guys.' I feel the justification I gave in the fic is good enough though,**

** -Rukia is going to be a complete badass if I can help it, because I have big plans for her… offstage… because she won't be in the spotlight as often as Ichigo and the others due to her role, ugh! I just want to put my rant right here but I'm worried that I'll spoil later chapters…**

** -Lolz to Kakashi for getting his ass kicked by Rukia and for Sasuke telling him his own first impression… priceless…**

** -If it seems that there is a KakaRuki pairing here then let me speak to that; the title of this story is IchiRuki Ramen, not KakaRuki Ramen. ****IchiRuki is a decided pairing****- the only decided one for the moment. It may not seem like anything big but I can work on that later,**

** -Part of the Kuroaski's past is revealed! Not enough for you to draw conclusions though… That's for later! **

** -Bell test was short, sweet, and to the point. I just want to get to the friggin wave ark!**

** Also, thank you everyone who reviewed the story, since that was the only reason I could get this chapter out (would have been sooner if I had not been met with rl) Ironically this sotry is more fun to write, but gets less views than the story I posted a day later (500 views vs +1000 views…) please review!**

** ~Crunch! (Random Cookies) :D**


	4. Ch4: Greetings and Waves

**To be simple I'm going to put a generic disclaimer here: If I owned Naruto, Bleach, or anything that earned me money, I would try to introduce too many unique ideas and have that position taken away from me, so the only thing I own is the plot and a few OC's**

**I wanted to do this chapter so badly, but yet I fell out of tune with it multiple times and got bored. I hope that didn't affect the overall outcome though!**

**Demons/Summoning/Powerful People (like me :P)**

_Flashback/EMPHASIS_

Jutsu/Kido/Techniques

Ch4: Greetings and Waves

"But come on Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto complained, "We've been doing these stupid missions for forever! Why the heck can't we do something more interesting?"

"Because Naruto, these wonderful D-rank missions are important for your growth as a genin and it would be oh so horrible for me to take it away from you,"

After being met with stares of none-too happy expression, Kakashi gave a famous eye-smile, "That's more like it! Good team synergy!"

The Hokage laughed, "Ah Naruto, if only you knew, your days of D-rank missions have only just begun."

"Jiji!" Naruto attempted to plead with his last hope, "Can't we _please_ take a better mission than these D-ranks?"

"Well,"

The Hokage looked at the group of teens in front of him seemingly begging for freedom (except Sasuke, but he could tell that he wanted the same as his teammates) and finally gave in,

"If it's ok with your sensei, I think you could go,"

All eyes turned to the jounin in the group

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes Naruto?" Kakashi asked politely with a hidden sarcastic tone spouting superiority, "What is it?"

Naruto sighed, "I was hoping to save this for later, but I think we might be able to come to an understanding about your collection being saved from Rukia-neechan."

Kakashi's visible eye widened in shock, "You have a way to keep her from finding it?" Naruto nodded, "Really? You better not just be pulling my chain,"

"I'll show you right now," Naruto said, "_If_ you let us take a higher mission."

"Well," Kakashi considered his options; on one hand, he had an opportunity to continue increasing his teams synergy and reading his book, but on the other, he had a prospect of hiding his prized collection- from Rukia no less, and he knew that Naruto did not disappoint when it came to fine tricks like these, "Fine. What is your amazing idea Naruto?"

"It's easy," Naruto turned to Sasuke and winked, which made him smirk, "Can I see the book so I can make a demonstration?"

Feeling uneasy, Kakashi hesitated, but gave Naruto the book,

"Ok, now here it goes," Naruto threw the book up in the air as Sasuke flew through hand-seals,

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Great Fireball!)"

Kakashi watched in horror as the jutsu caught his book in the air, burning it to a crisp,

"You…" Kakashi turned to give them both a fair share of Sennen Goroshi (One Thousand Years of Death) when he saw Naruto hold up his hand as if telling him to wait,

Before pulling the book out of his pocket?

"Here you go," Naruto handed the book to his instructor, who immediately flipped through it to make sure it was the one he had lost, "Don't worry, it's the same one as I tossed,"

"But how?" Kakashi looked at his student, "I saw it burn!"

"That was this," Naruto pulled out another book from his pocket, one that looked exactly the same as the one he was holding, "I know what the covers of those things look like by heart now, co I managed to create a copy," to demonstrate his point Naruto pulled on the cover, sliding it upwards to reveal a different book, "Just put a different book's cover over the book while you read it,"

'Well that was degrading,' Kakashi deadpanned his students, who were all smiling while he was at a loss of words, 'Eh, well I got a way to hide my collection from Rukia, so I guess it's worth it.'

"So what's our mission?" Naruto asked impatiently, but happily as he turned to the Hokage, "I hope it's awesome!"

"It's an escort mission," the Hokage took a paper from the stack of missions labeled 'C' and handed it to Kakashi, "Come back here tomorrow when you're ready to leave, the client will meet you in the morning."

"Alright then," Kakashi took the paper and began to read, "C-rank escort mission. We are to escort Tazuna, a master bridge builder, back to the Land of Waves,"

Looking at the Hokage Naruto asked the question they all wanted to, "Jiji… this is another boring mission!"

"Oh lighten up Naruto," Kakashi gave his team another eye-smile, "I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing the sights and such, it'll be so much fun!"

Not waiting for a response Kakashi looked at his wrist and then back to his squad, "Pack for a week of traveling, and try to keep your excess stuff low, since we need supplies more than other stuff. Meet me here in the morning around 9am, later~!"

0-0-0

"-and then he disappeared with his annoying-as-frik Shunshin (Body Flicker Technique)." Naruto sighed as he laid his head on the bar of Ichiraku, having finished telling the story of the events leading up to his travel, "A week of supplies though? What should I pack Rukia-neechan?"

"Well that depends," Rukia replied from behind the counter, "You're on an escort mission right?"

"Yeah," Naruto replied, "Is there a difference?"

"Kind of," Rukia replied, "You'll need the basic stuff, but you'll have to be more careful about what you bring, since space is limited and the more stuff you bring the harder it will be on your back, and you'll be traveling for a long time."

"So… Basics in compressed bags?"

"I have a better idea," Rukia turned around to face the back, "Oi Ichigo? You think you can wait for Yuzu or Karin to get back while I go home and get something real quick?"

"Why the heck wouldn't I?" Ichigo yelled back, "I don't get how everyone here has a lack of trust in me being able to watch over the freaking stand. I can do it ok?"

"Alright then," Rukia jumped over the stand and held her hand out, "Grab on, this speeds things up a bit,"

Naruto grabbed her hand and the two disappeared in a Shunshin (Body Flicker Technique), appearing again in the Kurosaki house,

"I think its somewhere over here," Rukia wandered off to search for something amongst the clutter while Naruto looked around, it had been a while since he had last been here, and he noticed a few new things,

Specifically a red glove with a skull surrounded by blue flames on it.

Curious, Naruto picked up the glove and tried to put it on, only to find it was too small. He frowned at this, wondering who could actually wear the thing then, perhaps it was something they outgrew?

"NARUTO!" Naruto heard the cry and flinched, hiding the glove behind his back as a reflex, "Don't touch anything!" 

"I'm not!" Naruto yelled back defiantly, "I'm just looking,"

"You better be!" Naruto sighed in relief as he was left to his own devices, "Hey get in here!"

Or not.

Naruto walked into the room that he presumed was Rukia's, he expected a room just like any other in the house, and he was slightly off. Instead of normal, it was just weird. On one wall Rukia had her ninja gear neatly on shelves and such, on the opposite wall he saw her bed and an infinite amount of stuffed-rabbits, and on the wall directly in front of him all he saw was clutter,

"Here," Naruto looked into the clutter, seeing Rukia pull out a small scroll and motioning to him, "Come here,"

Naruto complied and walked over to her, sitting down as she opened the scroll on the floor, rolling it open and revealing several intricate symbols drawn with excessive Kanji,

"What is that?"

"This is a storage scroll Naruto," Rukia let her hand touch the delicately printed scroll and rubbed it affectionately, "It's rather old- we actually got it from Kakashi, but I have my own now so I don't need it, you can have this one."

"What does it do though?" Naruto asked, perplexed, "What is this supposed to do?"

"It stores," Rukia took her hand and touched one of the seal, "By applying chakra on the seal you can either place or take things from it, like so,"

Rukia applied chakra through her hand and in a puff of smoke, a stuffed rabbit appeared,

"Wow," Naruto said, "That would be useful, I could bring all my supplies in that scroll alone!"

"You have to be careful though," Rukia warned him, "If the scroll is destroyed then everything is lost forever, unless you remember that same seal on the scroll which you obviously wouldn't."

"Oh yeah?" Naruto replied, "I bet I could memorize this, it doesn't look that hard,"

Rukia laughed, "Well maybe you could, but that's another field entirely, it's called Fuinjutsu (The Style of Sealing), perhaps I could show it to you sometime,"

"That would be awesome," Naruto smiled as he rolled up the scroll and bowed politely, "Thanks Rukia-neechan,"

"Just go pack up," she shooed him off, "I don't want you to be late and give Kakashi an excuse to be late based off of you."

"Love you too Rukia-neechan!"

0-0-0

"Alright then," Kakashi said as the last member of their team, Sakura, arrived in the mission acceptance room, "So… where is our client?"

"I can't believe it!" Naruto said, "The one day Kakashi-sensei is on time, the guy who should be here isn't! Why me…"

"You say that like I'm always late-" Kakashi was interrupted by three deadpan stares, "Ok, well maybe I'm late _most_ of the time,"

"Sasuke-kun?" Said man of doom and gloom looked over to his teammate, Sakura, "Do you want to-"

"No." Sasuke cut her off, "What I want to do is for the client to get here, for the mission to begin, and for the mission to end. Then I will get my pay, I can go home, and I will train."

"Wow…" Naruto stared in awe of his teammates, "Not only did he cut you off Sakura-chan, but he didn't say 'tch' or 'hn' or anything during his reply! That must mean something, or is everyone but me out of character today?"

"Hn."

"Shut up Naruto,"

"That's more like it!" Naruto replied sarcastically to his teammates and gave them thumbs up, "Team synergy for the win!"

"Win? A midget like you? A ninja?" Everyone turned to the doorway to see an older man with grey hair that was somewhat ruffled on his head and was also around his mouth, forming a beard-moustache without connecting to his sideburns. He had slightly tanned skin and wore glasses, a sleeveless brown v-neck, and had a towel over his shoulder. He was leaning on the doorframe rather awkwardly and the most prominent thing about him was none other than,

Smell.

He stunk of being drunk, and to make it worse he wasn't any sober-er than he smelled,

"Haha, midget," Naruto looked around chuckling until he found all eyes on him, "Wait, me? I'll kill you-"

"Be nice to the client Naruto," Kakashi held the struggling Naruto back, keeping him from attacking the person he was meant to protect, "You are Tazuna correct?"

"Yes," Tazuna stood up straight and pointed out the door and wobbled slightly as he made his way out, "Well let's go then,"

Everyone sweat-dropped as the man muttered, walking out of sight and down the hallway, "Isn't the exit in the other direction?"

0-0-0

"I'm sorry I was so drunk back there," Tazuna apologized, having sobered up a good way outside of the village, "I accidently swapped my wine canteen with my water one, and ended up drinking the whole thing. I hope I wasn't too much of a bother,"

"It's fine Tazuna-san," Kakashi reassured his client, "We didn't take it personally,"

"I did…"

"Naruto, he was drunk," Kakashi scolded his student, "Lots of people have major personality changes when they're drunk."

"I am sorry for what it's worth," Tazuna hastily cut in, "I had no right to insult your height, and nothing minor like that should prevent people from their dreams,"

"It's ok I guess," Naruto replied, and seeing Kakashi walk towards the front with Sakura and Sasuke he tried to make conversation with the bridge builder, "So, the mission said you're a master bridge builder right?"

"That's correct, back home I built many a bridge and managed to connect many places that were once only reachable by boat," Tazuna's face shone with pride, "Ah, those were the days,"

"Well, what were you doing here in Konoha?" Naruto asked, "We don't have that many requests for bridges being built in Fire country, what work were you doing?"

"I was here on family business," Tazuna replied vaguely, "A close family friend died and I came to pay my respects,"

"Oh," Naruto replied, "I'm sorry,"

"Ah, its ok kid," Tazuna replied cheerfully, "After all, good folks like my old friend go up to Kami, where they reside forever."

"With Kami?" Naruto wondered about the statement briefly, "I guess those who don't go to Hell then?"

"Yes lad," Tazuna shook his head solemnly, "There are some folks in this world that just hate what is good, and it's those kinds of people that need to be shown to the path of good."

"WATCH OUT!"

Naruto heard the warning and tackled Tazuna to the side, watching in horror as two men came out of nowhere with a long chain, barely missing him and the Bridge Builder,

"Heh, one down," Naruto looked up defiantly at the two and growled, "Three to go,"

"I'll get you bastard!" Naruto yelled as he launched himself into the fray, attacking one of the men with a right hook,

"Not enough!" the man chastised him as he brought up a large claw and smashed Naruto aside with it, sending him stumbling as he moved to follow up, "Wha-"

The man's shock at the revelation of Naruto being a clone startled him as he suddenly found a foot implanted in his gut,

"'Not enough' this!" Naruto shouted, sending the attacker into a nearby tree with his drop kick with a smirk,

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Great Fireball!)"

Naruto turned to see Sasuke unleash a ball of fire similar to what had happened in the mission room the other day… only bigger.

_Way_ bigger.

"ARGUH!" The man was hit by Sasuke's technique head on, sending him back hard, flames still burning on his body,

"Nii-san!" the man Naruto had hit came running to his brother, looking at the two genin with death glares, "You will pay for thi-"

"Impressive, Naruto, Sasuke,"

The man was knocked out with the blunt of a kunai, revealing Kakashi standing behind him with an eye-smile, "Good fight right?"

"K-Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura pointed at him with a shaking finger, "B-but you,"

Kakashi's eye smile faded into an unemotional disappointment glare as he pointed to the direction where his supposedly dead self was supposed to be, only to find multiple splinters there instead.

"I was wondering where you were," Naruto frowned visibly as Kakashi piled the two unconscious attackers and rolled them over off the road, "Did you really think that after seeing you spar with Ichigo and get chased all over Konoha by Rukia-neechan that I'd fall for seeing you get killed by a stupid attack like that?"

"Thank you for going along with it though," Kakashi replied, pulling out a rope and tying the two to the tree, "I needed to figure out a few things, I learned all of them."

Tazuna started to sweat, only to the notice of Kakashi, "What were you trying to figure out Kakashi-sensei?"

"A couple of things," Kakashi looked over to his team, "The first thing is that you Sakura, are in over your head. You need to take this career more seriously."

Sakura held her head low in disappointment while Kakashi continued, "Secondly I noticed that these were not ordinary bandits after loot, they were specifically after you, Tazuna,"

Tazuna clenched his fists as Kakashi continued, "Finally, I noticed who those bandits were; the Demon Brothers, chunin rank missing-nin from Kirigakure (Village Hidden in the Mist)."

Kakashi continued as Tazuna's sweat became apparent to them all, "Tazuna, this is no ordinary escort mission, and I suggest that if you want to be heard before I decide to leave now and take my team back to send you with another until the rank gets upped, then you better tell us what's going on."

"I-I'm very sorry, all of you," Tazuna lowered his head, "I was sent here to get help for my country, let me explain. The Land of Waves has always been a thriving place for business and trade, and naturally, being the kind folk we are we didn't discriminate against anyone for their past affairs when they tried to open up shop here-"

"What does this have to do with anything?" Kakashi asked, "Please get to the point,"

"A few years ago a very horrible, ruthless businessman came to the Land of Waves by the name of Gato and claimed a monopoly over our entire country, forcing us into starvation and killing anyone that said otherwise,"

Tazuna kneeled in front of the four Konoha shinobi, "I spent much more than I was authorized to pay for someone to come help us, but I beg you in the name of Kami, please help us!"

Kakashi sighed as Tazuna stared at them all pleading, "Before we decide-"

"I'm in."

"Eh? Naruto!" Sakura yelled at him, "Kakashi hasn't even said anything yet, what are you saying? You'll just jump the gun to help this guy?"

"Yes, I am," Naruto said, turning to face his teammates, "I don't want to leave him to die, he may not have been for very long, but he is a friend,"

Naruto looked at each of his teammates in the face before continuing, "You don't have to come, I'll go by myself if you don't want to,"

"I would have given you all a huge long speech about the dangers of going on this mission but," Kakashi sighed, "It appears Naruto's hot-head has gotten to him again, and he's already made his mind, and now I _have_ to go because otherwise I would be responsible and I would get my ass kicked about it," he turned to the other two members of Team 7, "Sakura, Sasuke, you can go home if you want. This is your choice now, our lives are easily at risk now."

"… Seriously?"

All eyes turned to the normally silent Uchiha, "After finally being able to test myself against a real opponent, you ask me if I want to back down? I am staying."

"If I went home right now, I would regret it too badly," Sakura said 'I can't just leave when Sasuke-kun is still here!'

"T-Thank you!" Tazuna began to cry as they began to continue their journey, "Thank you so much!"

Kakashi looked on and smiled, "Come on then, we should make some ground before it gets dark,"

0-0-0

"ICHIGO!"

"Hm?" Ichigo looked up from his sleep to see Rukia looking at him rather angrily, but he was too tired to comprehend anything important, "What is it? It's like, 5:30 am-OW!"

"You always sleep in; you're getting too relaxed around here now that Kakashi's got a team of genin to deal with,"

Ichigo grumbled and rolled onto the floor, standing up revealing his pajamas and an odd sleeping hat, "Well what do you want? I'm up now."

"The glove you idiot," Rukia scowled at him, "Where the heck did you put it? I've looked everywhere around the house and I _cannot_ find it."

"The glove?" Ichigo rubbed his eyes and began to walk through the house, "I remember where I put it,"

"You better, I got to get ready for another border patrol and I need it."

"I hear you I hear you, in fact Yuzu, Karin, and the whole friggin village hears you too!" Ichigo hissed back, reaching a desk near the front door, "Now it was somewhere right here,"

Reaching his hand out and not finding the glove, Ichigo turned to Rukia and shrugged, "Well, I looked, and I can't find it, and we both know it rejects people that aren't Shinigami already, so it wasn't me."

"You are helping me look for it," Ichigo's attempt to escape was stopped by Rukia grabbing and pulling him back tow where she was standing,

"Fine," Ichigo stood idly as Rukia began to look through the desk, "Hey, didn't Naruto come by the other day?"

"Yes he did-FUUUUUUU!" Rukia walked up to the wall and slammed her head repeatedly against it, "Stupid, stupid stupid… I told him not to touch anything!"

"Rukia calm down!" Ichigo said to no avail, "Look, they probably aren't that far from the village- less than a few hours at max speed, I know Land of Waves isn't far from here, we're near the coast,"

"Then you go get it, while I go explain to the Hokage why I can't take my mission," Rukia stormed out of the house, leaving Ichigo to himself,

"Geez, what set her off?"

"I don't know Kon, probably lack of sleep like me," Ichigo replied as he began his trek back to his room to get changed, "I swear, the things I do for that woman…"

0-0-0

"Wow Kakashi-sensei," Sakura commented as they continued their journey, having gotten up, eaten, and started a while ago "I had figured that this would be a lot more dangerous than yesterday, maybe with more attacks and stuff like that, but so far it's been rather peaceful."

"Thanks for jinxing us Sakura-chan,"

"What? I did not!" Sakura said defiantly, "Naruto, jinxing is something that is used to explain irony."

"Uh-huh," Naruto nodded, "Exactly, so if I take this kunai, like so," Naruto twirled it around his finger, "Do you think we'll find anything dangerous?"

"Of course not-" Sakura was startled when Naruto released the kunai, flinging it into the bushes, causing a white rabit to pop out of it and leave,

Sakura stared at Naruto, "Naruto you almost killed the rabbit. What is wrong with you?"

"I swore I sensed something-"

"GET DOWN!"

Again Naruto was forced to duck as this time, a large blade swung over their heads, imbedding itself in the tree trunk infront of them,

"Nice call, Copy-nin Kakashi,"

Naruto looked up from his position on the ground to see a man with pale skin and narrow, brown eyes standing on the guillotine-like sword that had been thrown earlier. He was shirtless, but had bandages over his lower face, along with a belt from his back to his waist and had short, black spiky hair that was slightly kept back by a hitae-ate on the side of his head,

"Zabuza Momoichi?" Kakashi asked, pulling his hitae-ate up so that he could use both eyes, "Damn it, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, protect Tazuna while I fight him, he is too much for you,"

"I think that's an understatement," Zabuza said as he stepped down from his weapon and pulled it from the tree, swiging it easily over his shoulder as he brought his hands into a handseal, "I'm also too much for you,"

"Kirigakure no Jutsu! (Hiding in the Mist Technique!)" 

"Go-!"

The last words they heard from Kakashi before the sound of metals clanging told them the urgency and they ran up to Tazuna, protecting him from all sides,

"Don't worry Tazuna-san," Amidst the massive Killer Intent Naruto tried to reassure him, "We'll protect you, this Zabuza doesn't stand a chance against Kakashi-sensei dattebayo!"

'He doesn't feel this?' Tazuna asked as he felt the air try to choke the life out of him, 'What is this feeing, this feeling like I will die…'

0-0-0

CLANG!

Kakashi managed to stop Zabuza in his attempt to pass him again with a Ninja's best friend, kunai,

"You were hired by Gato I assume?" Kakashi asked, "Why? What could he possibly get for you?"

"Money,"

Zabuza pushed Kakashi back, forcing him to try and block another mystery blow from Zabuza,

"You're trying to fuel the overthrow of the Mizukage again?"

"Maybe,"

Kakashi pulled back and tried to swipe at Zabuza through the mist, only to find himself alone,

"But you won't be there to find out,"

Kakashi ducked and rolled forward, avoiding the deadly swipe and taking a defensive stance , "You want to make a bet?"

"Sure," Kakashi raised an eyebrow to the statement as the deep voice continued, "I'll bet…"

"The lives of your genin squad!"

Kakashi's eyes opened wide as he cursed, turning and dashing towards where he left his squad not moments before,

0-0-0

"So, where should I strike?"

Naruto looked into the mist, searching for the source of the voice,

"There are seven places where I can strike and kill you, you know," Naruto began to look around frantically for the missing-nin, "Heart, liver, lungs, brain, kidneys… Should I go on?"

"Stay calm!" Naruto shouted through the fog, "Don't let him get to you, he just wants to scare us!"

"'Just scare you' you say? I'm not here to play kiddie games boy,"

Naruto's life flashed before his eyes as he saw the gigantic sword come out of nowhere and approach his head, "I'm here to _kill_ you."

"NARUTO MOVE!"

Naruto was pushed aside as Kakashi managed to block Zabuza's blow, barely blocking it as the blade cut a gash in his shoulder,

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!"

"Heh, it's over now," Naruto watched in horror as Kakashi fell to one knee, still holding Zabuza at bay, but unable to move otherwise,

"N-Naruto…" Naruto snapped out of his nightmare as he heard Kakashi's low voice, "Get everyone to safety-"

Before Naruto could react Kakashi had pushed upward, unbalancing the Missing-nin before lighting his hand up with Lightning,

"Raikiri! (Lightning Cutter!)"

Kakashi's hand glowed with Electricity as he smashed his hand into the Missing-nin, hitting him on the chest weakly, causing him to fly back,

Naruto rushed over to Kakashi as he fell forward, "Screw it, Sasuke, Sakura, we got to leave now!"

Naruto hauled Kakashi over to his two teammates and the client, only to find that they were frozen in fear, "Cut it out? Do you want to get us all killed?"

Naruto grit his teeth as he ran up to Sasuke and smashed their foreheads together in an attempt to wake the teen, causing him to fall down unconscious, "Screw it again!"

Turning around into the mist Naruto put his hands in a handseal, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone Jutsu!)"

Creating a multitude of clones the Naruto squad picked up his fear-stricken comrades and began to run back as fast as possible to escape the mist,

"That thing hurt like a bitch!"

Naruto looked up to see Zabuza standing infront of his entourage cracking his neck, "Oh well, I guess I'll have time to get him back now, no matter how many of you there are, I will win."

"In your dreams!" The regime of clones shouted as they bravely charged into their own deaths, only thickening the fog as Zabuza proceeded,

"You aren't bad kid," Zabuza swung through Naruto's last clone, leaving him the only person able to fight, "But then again, you aren't good either."

"I can't die here," Naruto clenched his fists, "Not until I become Hokage! Not until I fufill my dream!"

At this Zabuza began to laugh, "Kid, you aren't even a ninja. One becomes a ninja by hovering between life and death enough times that it doesn't faze you, but one does not earn the title until you enter _my_ bingo book,"

Naruto clenched his fists tighter as he felt the cold steel against his throat,

"You look like you could have become a real good bounty someday though, maybe you could have been in my bingo book," Zabuza shrugged, "Sorry Kid,"

CLING!

Zabuza's attempt to decapitate Naruto was stopped by an orange-haired teen with a rather large meat cleaver,

"Ichigo?" Naruto looked in shock as he blocked the blow intended to kill him, "Why are you here?"

"You took Rukia's glove and she needs it back-" Ichigo said as he managed to push Zabuza back with his raw force, bringing a separation between the two, "And I think I need that thing now. Give it to me!"

Not completely understanding Naruro followed his instructions anyway, pulling out the glove from his coat pocket and tossing it to Ichigo, who put it on and cried,

"Zanpakutoū Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Zangetsu! (Soul-Cutting Sword Summoning Art: Slaying Moon!)"

Zabuza looked with interest as his new opponent materialized a large sword similar to his own, causing him to smirk, "So you have a named blade as well, I haven't heard of yours though,"

"Maybe you'll introduce yours though?" Ichigo asked as he took his stance, "Since I was kind enough to introduce mine?"

"Kubikiribōchō (The Executioner's Sword)"

The two opponents nodded before jumping back into the heart of the mist, leaving Naruto to try and get the rest of his team to safety,

'Damn that Ichigo,' Kakashi said to himself as he fell unconscious, 'He always manages to get into trouble. Bless his heart…'

**X=X=X**

**Cut!**

** Hooray for cliffhangers? Who's with me? *Silence* … Oh well, was worth a shot**

** Couple of important notes to this chapter;**

** -Idea of getting book covers to disguise Kakashi's books came to me from an idea I read in another fanfic… more than two years ago ^^' so I don't know whose it was but thank you for that!**

** -Kon appears! :O What does this mean? Probably that you should tell me to hurry up and write the next chapter!**

** -Nice little IchiRuki moment for those who enjoyed it… I needed to make one soon anyway; for having a pairing name in a fic I have little to show for it.**

** -Kakashi got injured badly, I know the whole scene is very off from the cannon… that's why I like it!**

** -I feel that I am team 7 bashing, or at least Kakashi bashing, am I? I really need to know this I HATE BASHING!**

** -Ichigo v.s. Zabuza? Hell yeah! Fun fun fun time!**

** So, be warned in advance… the next chapter will not only be out before the end of December, but it will have a Christmas Omake! Hooray!**

** Also I posted an Omake in ch3 to help explain the bell test, I'm sorry about that… Even I think I did a horrible job…**

** ~Crunch! (Random Cookies) :D**


	5. Ch5: Make My Day

**To be simple I'm going to put a generic disclaimer here: If I owned Naruto, Bleach, or anything that earned me money, I would try to introduce too many unique ideas and have that position taken away from me, so the only thing I own is the plot, some attacks I have created (including names for attacks without names, along with names for people who are not given names) and a few OC's**

**Merry Christmas you filthy animal! (Home alone ftw)**

**Demons/Summoning/Powerful People (like me :P)**

_Flashback/EMPHASIS_

Jutsu/Kido/Techniques

Ch5: Make My Day

"I like your taste in weapons,"

"Same,"

Ichigo blocked a swipe from Zabuza's mighty Kubikiribōchō as the two began to engage in combat, "I haven't had to fight a sword similar to my own in size since Kisame-sempai,"

"I haven't ever fought someone with a blade like my own," Ichigo winced under the pressure from Zabuza's blade, "But there's a first for everything,"

"Indeed,"

Ichigo pushed upward, causing Zabuza to stumble back as he brang his sword back, launching it forward to smash right into his side,

Spewing water everywhere as he melted away,

"Nice swing kid," Ichigo turned around to lock blades with Zabuza again, "You look like you taught yourself; you're an amateur, but a decent amateur,"

'This guy is really strong,' Ichigo grunted as he stepped back and began to assault the older man, 'How could Kakashi possibly fight this guy with a kunai if I have problems with Zangetsu?'

"You're losing focus!"

Ichigo came out of his thoughts in time to side-step a swing from his opponent,

'That was close,' Ichigo began to close in on Zabuza and clash blades again, rapidly engaging in strikes that cause sparks to fly, 'I better get my head in the game then,'

0-0-0

'Why did everyone decide to get knocked out right when we needed everyone to be wide awake?' Naruto cursed his luck as his clones followed him out of the mist, carrying his teammates and their client as they ran, 'Hopefully Ichigo can hold the guy off till I get everyone to safety, then I can come back and hel-'

Poof!

Memories flooded into Naruto's mind as he turned around and dashed into his brigade, jumping in front of the falling Tazuna and drawing a kunai, reflecting several senbon that flew towards him,

"Who's there?" Naruto asked out into the mist, motioning his clones to keep going, "It's just a bridge builder, my god what is your problem?"

"I didn't expect you to actually sense my attack and shield him, impressive," out of the fog came a person in a white mask with two red swirls, whose black hair was tied into a white bun in the back while two strands fell to the front on either side of their face, landing on the shoulder, which was covered by a turtle neck sweater, and overtop of that was a short, blue-green kimono with white edges tied by a green-brown obi at the waist, "And you are the only one of your team to stay conscious, this is quite an interesting encounter,"

"It won't be my last either," Naruto cracked his knuckles before using a silent Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu) to create several clones to surround the mysterious attacker and charge in,

"Recklessly charging in is not the best tactic against an unknown enemy," the attacker chided him before pulling out senbon from their sleeves and throwing them in all directions, destroying all of Naruto's clones and hitting the real Naruto him the shoulder, causing him to grunt as he stepped backwards, "Now what will you do?"

"Hm…" Naruto put his pointer finger on his chin and looked up at the sky, "Gee I wonder-"

"How about this!"

The attacker turned around and in one swift motion, dispersed the clone Naruto had sent from behind and threw a second senbon at Naruto, who took it, but this time he kept going,

"Let's make this personal," Naruto said as he pulled out a kunai from his holster and began to fight in close quarters, taking the offence against his opponent, who had chosen to melee him with two senbon, and was easily dodging his attempts, "Dang, you're good,"

"I know," the hunter-nin flipped backwards, "Sensatsu Suishō! (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death!)"

"Holy-" Naruto stared in awe as thousands of needles appeared in the air around him before looking at his opponent, who had drawn regular senbon as Naruto frowned, 'Well this sucks,'

The senbon began firing and Naruto was forced to take several more blows as a cost to avoid the majority, dodging through a variety of flips and jumps,

Only to get kicked in the side,

"AGH!" Naruto cried as he was sent flying into a tree nearby, quickly getting up and picking several senbon out of his side while rubbing it, "That hurt!"

"It was supposed to knock you out," the hunter-nin replied, placing his hands in a seal, "Well then, I guess I'll have to-"

"Not today!" Naruto dashed forward with his kunai and clashed with Haku, who held his attack at bay with one arm "I don't need any more thorns in my side at this point, no thank you!"

"Well then, that's too bad," the hunter-nin placed his unused hand in a single seal, "I only need one hand,"

"Sensatsu Suishō! (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death!)"

"What the hell?" Naruto shouted as he managed to use a quick Kawarimi (Body Replacement Technique) to get out of harm's way, but he knew he was in no way able to overpower his opponent, 'This is going to suck,'

"Are you done, or shall I go after your client now?" The Hunter nin started to walk away through the mist, "I don't really think you can stop me though, I'm just being polite,"

'He's right,' Naruto grit his teeth, 'What the heck can I do against this guy?'

Suddenly, a light bulb lit up in his brain, 'That's it!'

0-0-0

CLANG!

Zangetsu bounced off of Kubikiribōchō in a frenzy of blows exchanged between the two swordsmen in less than three seconds, but with the speed and multitude of a half-hour,

'This is like fighting Kenpachi,' Ichigo grunted as he managed to nick Zabuza through the crook of his blade while taking some damage himself, 'Why are there so many strong swordsmen out here? Can't they just be regular people so that I can stay home all day and let Rukia make the money?'

"This is very repetitive," Zabuza commented offhandedly as the two began to further envelope in the mist, "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu! (Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!)"

"Not that!" Ichigo cried out as he braced himself for the blow, getting smashed hard and forced back as the attack progressed, 'Heh, this is nothing compared to Kakashi's, his usually makes me slip up or something,'

"You still persist?" Zabuza appeared in front of Ichigo, bringing Kubikiribōchō down on Zangetsu in an unholy crash, "What talent, you could easily be a Seven Swordsman, wouldn't Kirigakure love that,"

"I think Konoha has enough problems with the Kurosaki's residence," Ichigo replied sarcastically, "What about you then, Kiri had enough of you too?"

"Trying to kill a Kage doesn't go well with the general populace it seems,"

The two blades crashed again, sending sparks flying, "If you're trying to kill a Kage, why are you here instead of their?"

Zabuza locked blades with him as he replied, "I need money to hire soldiers. I could never do the job myself."

"Kage are real strong huh?" Ichigo grimaced as he pulled out of the lock, pulling his sword down in an ark before creating his own lock, "And you think you could take one down?"

"Or die trying," Zabuza said as the two continued to clash, "When you don't fear death, that is when you are a true shinobi."

'I guess Kenpachi is definitely a shinobi then, funny'

0-0-0

"Finished with the blonde brat already?"

Haku stopped in her tracks as she heard her master's voice ring through the fog, and turning around she saw him walking towards her wielding the sword of the man he had been facing, inspecting it, "The carrot-top was fun, but he didn't last very long," he looked briefly at the blood stain on his sword, "Come on, let's find the bridge builder and go home,"

"What did you do to Naruto?" Tazuna stepped out of the fog, fear written on his face, "Leave them, just take me,"

"Heh, pleasure," Zabuza gripped Ichigo's blade in his hand as he walked forward, "I needed to test this out anyway,"

"So I suggest you surrender, Hunter-nin-san," Haku's eyes widened underneath her mask as 'Zabuza' placed the two swords next to her neck, "I'd rather not kill yet,"

"I am sorry to inform you that I don't fear death," Haku said solemnly, "This is a unique approach though, but you still are not able to defeat me on my own-"

FWZZWOOOSH!

'Zabuza' and Haku were forced to dodge as several kunai rained down on them, exploding upon contact with the ground-

'What the-' 'Zabuza' had no time to react as a kunai was quickly placed on his neck and he could see that his opponent was in a similar situation, 'What's going on here?''

"You are not Zabuza Momoichi are you?" Naruto looked through the eyes of his Henge (Transformation Technique) and saw four men dressed in an odd style of traditional jounin garb (being grey-blue as opposed to green) with a white mask that had several blue stripes on it,

"It depends on who you are," Naruto said gruffly, "Why are you here?"

"You are here after Zabuza-dono aren't you?" Naruto looked past the man talking to him to his former opponent, "Then I must resist,"

"That would be unwise miss," one of the Hunter-nin replied, "We might have to actually hur-AGH!"

"Hyōton: Tsubame Fubuki! (Ice Style: Swallow Snow Storm!)"

"Don't let them get away!"

The Hunter-nin dispersed as they made their own ways out of the storm of Ice birds that flew about, taking nicks from being slashed at some points-

"What are you-" Naruto tried to ask what was going on when his mouth was promptly gagged,

"Stay quiet," The fake Hunter-nin said, "These people work for the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura. They don't care if you're involved with us or not, they are going to try and kill you anyway,"

"You are not very good at masking your presence,"

The Fake Hunter-nin turned around just in time to clash senbon against kunai, "Tch,"

"Surrender, and maybe we can spare the blonde kid," the second Hunter-nin appeared, "You don't have anything you can do to fight us, surrender."

'Well, I don't know about ruthless,' Naruto thought as the Hunter-nin closed in, 'But I sure as hell am not going to let these people take me away, and it looks like they're about to,'

Naruto out his hand in a sign, 'Their fault,'

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!)"

The Hunter-nin were forced back as the space between them and their two targets was suddenly filled with a horde of orange-clad clones, immediately beginning to combat them,

'T-they're really good,' Naruto thought as memories from his clones began to pour in as he turned to his new friend, "Hey, let's-"

Where was he- wait, but didn't the _real_ hunter-nin say 'miss' to him?

"Sensatsu Suishō! (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death!)"

Naruto turned to the sound of senbon whistling through the air and saw one of the real hunter-nin go down, leaving only one left, which was pile-driving through his clones-

'Whoa-' Naruto pulled out a kunai for each hand and engaged the enemy, being completely overwhelmed and thrown back at a tree in less than a second, 'What is this? I'm so badly outclassed, all my clones are gone!'

Fwooosh!

Naruto dusted himself off as he saw his ally engage the enemy next, doing better than him, but not the level of their attacker for sure, 'Even the guy that outclasses me is outclassed. This is bad.'

Naruto ran forwards into the battle area and created two clones by his side, each launching shuriken from their holsters, causing the conflict to end as Naruto came back on the scene,

"Oi, we gotta work together on this one," Naruto said as his clones ran forward to engage the man while he stayed behind, "Got any ideas?"

"We need to kill this man quickly and head back to Zabuza-dono, he and your comrade will be in danger of a larger force," Naruto saw his ally draw upon multiple senbon as his clones dispersed, rushing forward to take the man on himself,

"Again with the clones kid?" Naruto grit his teeth as he took the comment as an insult from his opponent, creating several clones to back him up, "You do realize how hopeless you are now right?"

0-0-0

"We aren't alone anymore are we?" Ichigo asked as the two stood off from each other, lowering their weapons, "Whoever you are come out already so we can kick your ass, interrupting a fight is such a bitch-ass move,"

"So you found a new friend eh Zabuza?"

Zabuza visibly winced as a man dressed in a grey-blue jounin vest with a unique blue-grey skin color and blue hair-

Overall the appearance of a shark

"Kisame?" Zabuza smirked as he faced off against his new opponent, "Hunting missing-nin now huh?"

"I'm just checking up on an old comrade," Kisame laughed, "And don't worry Kubikiribōchō, you will be reunited with your bretheren soon enough,"

"Over my dead body,"

"That can be arranged Zabuza," Kisame whistled, bringing out many ninja in similar attire to him with white masks- hunter-nin, "Take care of the other guy, Zabuza is mine,"

"I feel insulted," Ichigo muttered as the Hunter-nin surrounded him, "You just interrupt my fight and leave me with the weaker guy? Don't give me that crap!"

"We aren't wishing to fight you," the first Hunter-nin said, "You are not allowed to interfere with Kisame-dono's fight-"

"BAN-KAI! (Final Release!)"

"GAH!"

Zabuza and Kisame looked back to where Ichigo was standing, only to find all the hunter-nin defeated, with a yellow energy swirling around Ichigo as he hanged from a small black blade to the large one he had been using,

"Now then," Ichigo gave Kisame a dark smirk, "I think it's fair to say I'm going to kick your ass."

"You're welcome to try," Kisame reached behind him and pulled out a large, bandaged sword with a yellow handle, "And even more welcome to die trying,"

"I know what death is like," Ichigo snarled as he dashed forward, Bringing his blade down on Kisame's, "I am not afraid,"

"Good good!" Kisame began to laugh as he parried Ichigo's strike, pushing him aside as Zabuza came and launched his own assault, "This is interesting, three large swords in a single match? I will enjoy this,"

"Enjoy this!" Ichigo and Zabuza struck out at the same time, causing Kisame to wince as he blockd, sliding back from the blow before parrying them back,

"Enjoyed" Kisame replied as he blocked several blows from his two opponents, parrying them perfectly,"You disappoint me Zabuza, after deflecting I've heard you get _better_, right now you seem _weaker_ than when you were a Seven Swordsman, hiring yourself out there must really dull your skill,"

"You were never a pushover Kisame," Zabuza took the front, thrusting his sword forward- smashing into Kisame's sword and forcing him back as Ichigo rushed forward, "But that won't stop me from killing you this time,"

"Oh really?" Kisame parried Ichigo before jumping backwards, "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu! (Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!)"

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu! (Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!)"

Kisame's dragon of water clashed with Zabuza's easily overpowering and crushing it-

"Getsuga Tenshō! (Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer!)"

Kisame's dragon was completely obliterated by a large blast of red and black light, dispersing it into a short rainfall,

"Impressive, but foolish," Kisame dashed forward and struck out at Ichigo, who managed to block but was pushed back no less, "Your chakra reseves are massive however, I must congratulate you on lasting so long,"

"You've been using Samehada's (Shark Skin's) draining ability the whole time?" Zabuza scowled as he jumped back in, almost landing a blow on his former comrade, "No wonder I'm so tired. How are you doing kid?"

"Good," Ichigo said, swinging his sword in front of him as if it were no lighter than a feather, "Never been better,"

"How much longer can you hold out then," Kisame asked as he smashed Kubikiribōchō aside with his own massive blade, "When I start getting serious,"

"Suiton: Bakusui Shōha! (Water Style: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!)"

Ichigo grunted as he saw the massive wave coming and drew back Zangetsu,

"Getsuga Tenshō! (Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer!)"

The massive wave was split in two as Ichigo's black and red attack sliced clean through, forcing Kisame to block the bit that came his way,

"Nice try Zabuza!" Kisame smiled as he called his attacker out, as he pounced on him, but not quick enough as Kisame blocked his attack perfectly "You may have be a better silent killer than myself, but my senses are greater than yours,"

'Stupid chakra sensing sword,' Zabuza grunted as he continued toswing his mighty blade against Kisame's, losing chakra with every blow, 'And I still have to kill the bridge builder after this too…'

CLANG!

Zabuza looked in awe as Kisame blocked his blow before spinning around and blocking Ichigo's who had just come behind him previously,

"You're good kid," Kisame said as he parried both Zabuza and Ichigo, "You got the guts, you got the talent, but do you have the power?"

"I got enough power to kick your ass three times over," Ichigo said as he continued to parry Kisame, "And then some,"

"I'd like to see that," Kisame said as he struck out and hit Zabuza's arm, shaving some flesh off as his sword came and went, "If you wouldn't mind Zabuza,"

"GAH!" Zabuza fell and clutched his shoulder, leaving the opening that Kisame was hoping for,

Only to be intercepted by Ichigo again,

"Let's recap here," Ichigo said as he batted Kisame's sword away, "The first thing you do is interrupt my fight, then you go on and leave me with the wimps, and now that we're both fighting you, you make it so my original opponent can't fight me once I finish kicking your ass?"

Kisame's smile grew as he felt a massive amount of power rise from Ichigo, "Interesting… This power is something I haven't felt since I met the Yondaime Mizukage,"

0-0-0

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone Jutsu!)"

"You really don't understand do you,"

Naruto winced as memories from his clones' pain upon death began to pour in, causing him to falter, "You have no idea what type of weak you are. One hundred times zero is always zero."

"Hyōton: Shikei Shikkō no Hashira! (Ice Style: Exectioner's Pillars!)"

Naruto jumped back as his ally's attack came through, only for the Kiri ninja to disappear in a Shunshin (Body Flicker Technique) appearing before Naruto with a kunai drawn back, ready to strike,

"You still have no idea how useless you are-"

"Gah!" Naruto cried out in pain as he lifted his arms to defend himself subconsciously, getting the kunai latched into his right arm as he did so-

Fwooosh!

Naruto's subconscious motion to fall to the ground ended up saving him, as his ally's rain of senbon came down upon the enemy, causing him to jump back,

"Say your prayers kid," Naruto looked up to see the man engaging his ally in combat again as he talked, "These kunai are poisoned. You'll be dead before long,"

"Death?" Naruto asked, "I made a deal with death a long time ago, death doesn't have anything on me until I become Hokage,"

Naruto pulled out the kunai jabbed it further, causing the blood to continue bleeding out and preventing the poison from getting in his system,

"And on this scar I will vow to make myself a better shinobi," Naruto grit his teeth as the immense pain came to him, "Starting now!"

Naruto ran forward with the aid of several shadow clones and took over the close combat match, flicking his injured arm in the man's face- sending blood into his eyes,

As he cried out in surprise Naruto's clones surrounded him, each clone launching a kick,

"U-"

"Zu-"

"Ma-"

"Ki-"

The final kick from the ping-pong exchange sent the hunter-nin high in the air, only for the original Naruto to land his foot down on the man's head,

"NARUTO RENDAN! (Uzumaki Naruto Combo!)"

The man cried out as he fell to the ground, staying silent when he hit the ground, and lying motionless as Naruto walked over to him,

"Oi, where did you go?" Naruto called out, trying to procure the location of his ally, "Fake hunter-nin-san? Hello?"

"Hey you're the blonde brat from earlier!"

Naruto turned towards the voice and saw the two Demon Brothers team 7 had fought earlier,

"You might want to get scarce," Naruto said, "Hunter-nin are here after Kiri missing-nin like yourselves,"

"I think we don't care," the first brother said, "Your sensei almost killed us, so we will kill _you._"

Naruto frowned as he saw them both reveal their claw-like weapons, 'I never really got to fight them last time- I landed a single hit before Kakashi-sensei knocked them out,'

"Prepare to die fool!"

Naruto put his hands in his signature handseal, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone Jutsu!)"

The brothers were unfazed by his summoning of the clones and rushed in anyway, using the chains attached to their weapons to take out a decent portion of his clones before reaching Naruto himself,

Naruto and several clones beside him drew kunai, preparing to meet the brothers in combat. The first Naruto dashed forward towards the chain while the other two dashed for the individual brothers, but instead of engaging their respective opponents they dashed around them- moving to catch them with the chain as well,

Except thy forgot about the third Naruto, the real Naruto, who was pushing the chain back with kunai, one in each hand, and pressing them through the holes in the chain,

"We don't want to fight you," the two Naruto's began to engage the unbalanced brothers as the original Naruto continued to pull the chain backwards, "We just need to protect Tazuna,"

"We don't care," the second brother said, smashing his claw into the clone, causing it to disperse as he ran towards the original, "All we want right now is your blood, nothing more, nothing less,"

"Then have it!" The original Naruto turned around and bit his tongue, spitting the resulting blood in his opponents eyes before grabbing the chain and tying him quickly, turning around to find the other brother's claw inches from his face-

Poof!

"What?" the brother exclaimed as Naruto came from behind, pulling the same Kawarimi (Substitution Technique) tactic he had done during his last match with the brothers-

Only to hit a log as well-

"Wha-" Naruto's face filled with legitimate shock as the brother used the same technique as himself, preforming the same attack he did as well, kicking him into a nearby tree and causing him to curse,

"What? Didn't think we could do that?" Naruto looked up to see the other ninja say as he untied his brother, "We're both chunin from the generation of the original Bloody Mist graduation exam, of course we know simple stuff like that,"

'I underestimated them,' Naruto stood up and dusted himself off before creating five clones to aid him, 'Not this time,'

"We won't let you get the drop on us again brat,"

"Nii-san, let's use it," the two brothers shared a quick nod before jumping back out of the clone's range a second time and simultaneously used the same attack,

"Dokugiri! (Poison Mist!)"

Naruto immediately moved to jump out of the jutsu's range, but to his surprise the brothers used it like a flame thrower and ran towards him while expelling the purple clouds-

Instantly killing his clones?

'What the-' Naruo's eyes widened in horror as all his attempts to create clones near the mist were nullified 'No clones? The poison automatically kills them?'

"Have fun with the mist kid,"

"Don't forget to enjoy your last breath!"

Naruto's six sense kicked in and he jumped, avoiding the deadly chain and the claws with it, landing as they retreated into the fog,

'Shoot, I can't breathe,' Naruto began to look around desperately for a source of air, 'Is their anyway to get a breath of air?'

"Futon: Daitoppa! (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!)"

Naruto sent a prayer of thanks to Kami as the mist disappeared, immediately spotting the two brothers-

Being strangled by a Hunter-nin,

"Demon brothers, the fake Hunter-nin, and the Demon of the Mist?" The Hunter-nin chuckled darkly from behind his mask, "This is going to bring us so much favor from Mizukage-sama, he will surely reward us handsomely,"

"D-" The brothers were thrown over the hunter-nin's shoulder, who carelessly threw a kunai as his arms came back to his side, hitting the two brothers clean in the chest,

"Now, you might want to run along blonde," the Hunter-nin said carelessly, "I'm about to do something that would disgust most of you kids,"

Without a second thought the Hunter-nin placed his hands in a seal,

0-0-0

Clang!

Kisame found himself slower than his opponent, whose stats seemed to have doubled since he felt that blast of power earlier. But nothing had happened besides that,

'Did he sneak a soldier pill or something?' Kisame asked himself as he parried several blows, 'No, Samehada doesn't sense his chakra signature; he doesn't seem to be using chakra at all actually,'

Kisame winced as another blow hit his blade, causing him to stumble backward, 'How will this end then?'

"Getsuga Tenshō! (Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer!)"

Kisame moved out of the way as Ichigo's attack cut through the nearby forest ans left a small scratch on his jounin garb, 'I can't fuel this for much longer, my attacks rely on feeding Samehada,'

"Kid, I think this battle is going downhill," Kisame said as the two locked blades, "I don't fight the underdog fight, that's your job,"

"Heh, giving up?"

"No," Kisame said, "I'm warning you that I'm upping my game again,"

Before Ichigo could react Samehada shot past his shoulder in a similar matter to what happened to Zabuza earlier, taking a portion of his flesh as it came and went,

0-0-0

"Wha- what was that?" Naruto was shaking visibly as the corpses of the two brothers remained not even ashes as the Hunter-nin's attack faded, "T-that was inhumane, how could anything be so evil?"

"Kid I thought I told you-"

The Hunter nin stopped mid-sentence as he saw Naruto's forehead protector shimmer briefly,

"Konoha Shinobi?" The Hunter-nin flinched, "You saw what I did? I can't let you live-"

"Katon: Hibashiri! (Fire Style: Running Flame!)"

Naruto was separated from the Hunter-nin by a wall of flame that flew down the road, running past them and continuing to burn,

"Who is-GAH!"

Naruto heard the ninja fall to the ground with a thud as the flame ceased,

"Rukia-neechan?" Naruto asked in shock as Rukia appeared next to him in her full Konoha garb, her tanto hanging on her back, "What are you doing here?"

"Ichigo has the glove right?" Naruto nodded dumbly as she cursed, "I'll need an advil after this, Naruto go back to your team, Kakashi is conscious and I have a clone there with them, you'll be safe."

"I'm not useless Rukia-neechan!" Naruto clenched his fists, "Let me go and fight! I can-"

"You are not useless Naruto," Naruto looked up as Rukia grabbed his shoulders, "These people are too powerful for you right now though, we can fix that problem over time but for now, go help your team,"

"Fine," Rukia disappeared in a Shunshin (Body Flicker Technique), leaving Naruto on the road to find his team,

'Now the question is,' Naruto thought as he deadpanned, 'Where is my team anyway?'

0-0-0

"It was nice knowing you kid," Kisame lifted Samehada over his head and prepared to finish off Ichigo, "It'll be nice to see you in hell later, we'll have one hell of a poker game,"

'N… no…' Ichigo cursed as his shoulder cried out in pain as Samehada raised itself preparing to strike, 'No, not now, not before I-'

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south!"

Kisame looked to the origin of the voice to find a short woman with purple-violet eyes looking at him wearing a Shihakushō (Garment of the Dead Souls), her palm extended outward with a red ball of energy forming around it,

"Hadō #31: Shakkahō! (Demon Way #31: Red Fire Cannon!)"

Kisame's eyes widened as the ball extended into a destructive blast, catching him in the chest and causing him to fly into the nearby cluster of trees, breaking through them and landing on the gorund painfully,

"R-Rukia?" Ichigo asked as she began to help him up, "What's going on?"

"It had been three hours since you left and I felt something was wrong, so I came after you," Rukia managed to pull him up, "I brought Kon just in case, so I need you to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid,"

"Uh… Ok then…"

"That won't be nessecary," Rukia's eyes widened in shock as Kisame stepped out into the clearing, his chest bleeding and small blood droplets apparent on his mouth,

"H-How?" Rukia seemed disturbed, "Wait, aren't you-"

"Kisame of the Seven Swordsmen," Kisame cut her off, "And you must be Rukia Kuchiki, I've heard a lot about you in the past year,"

'Damn, this is bad,' Rukia thought as Kisame stepped forward, 'I don't have the raw power to defeat him, his chakra levels are insanely high, and I know he isn't trying yet,'

"I like your boyfriend here, so I'm letting you go,"

Rukia resisted the urge to strike the blue fish jounin as he continued, "Also, Fake-hunter-nin-san, make sure to tell Zabuza Momoichi that if he wants his sword back, he'll have to wait for it at the bridge under construction in the Land of Waves,"

Kisame walked over into the forest back towards where the original fight began and took the great Kubikiribōchō from him, putting it on his back alongside his own blade, as a disturbed fake-hunter nin dashed forward, and before Ichigo or Rukia could stop her, she was brutally pushed back by an assault by Kisame, sending her into Ichigo.

"Oh, and don't forget to tell him he better not destroy that bridge."

Kisame disappeared in a swirl of water, leaving Rukia, a damaged Ichigo, a weak Haku and an unconscious, injured Zabuza alone in the clearing, wondering what could possibly happen next.

X=X=X

Omake: A Kurosaki-Uzumaki Christmas!

"What the-" Naruto's eyes bulged as he walked into the Kurosaki residence, finding everything completely redecorated for the season- lights, cotton fluff on the walls and above the doorways that looked like snow, it was amazing!

"Yuzu went overboard this year," Karin sighed as she walked with Naruto towards the living room, "I have no idea how she did it though, some of this is just unreal."

"It's amazing!" Naruto exclaimed as he looked into the next room and saw that an entire wall had been covered with a festive wrapping paper, "Did Rukia-neechan help her or something, no way she could do this on her own!"

"Well, she did," Rukia said as she came into the room, still in her casual chunin uniform, "It's a real treat, but anyway come on, I left Ichigo in the kitchen-"

"ICHI-NII THE OVEN'S ON FIRE!"

"WHAT TH-"

"Figures," Rukia dashed back into the room she had come from and Naruto and Karin followed, upon arrival seeing that Rukia had already dowsed him with Suiton: Teppōdama (Water Style: Liquid Bullet) and was now berating him on his use of the stove,

"I told you it wasn't me… this time-OW!"

"Who else then, because I know sure-as-hell it wasn't Yuzu," She retorted angrily, "This is the third time I had to put out a fire this week. THIS WEEK Ichigo."

"I told you it wasn-OW!"

"Shut up Ichigo," Rukia grabbed him by the ear and began to drag him off towards the living room, "Anyway, come on you guys,"

Naruto and Karin nodded dumbly at her show of force as they followed suit, coming into the living room and sitting on one of the couches there,

"MERRY CHRISTMAS NARUTO!"

"WHAT TH-" Naruto jumped in surprise as Iruka laughed, grabbing Naruto and ruffling his hair, "Iruka-sensei?"

"Didn't expect me huh?" Iruka chuckled, "Don't worry, no homework Naruto,"

"Phew," Naruto let out a sigh of relief as he sank back into his seat, "Glad to hear that,"

"Merry Christmas you guys!" Naruto turned around to see Ayame and Teuchi come in the room, also taking seats,

"Yo!"

"Kakashi?" Naruto asked as the said jounin dropped in through the window, "You're here too?"

"Well I had to come and see my lovely little genin-to-be," Kakashi ruffled his hair and moved to get Karin, but was glared down, "Fine, be that way Karin,"

"I don't let perverts touch me," Karin said emotionlessly, "No exceptions,"

"So… cold," Kakashi shriveled away slowly as Naruto sweatdropped,

"What happened between you two?"

"Naruto, he is a pervert," Karin stated, "If you become like that you will understand, be glad you don't."

'Scary…' Naruto shivered before order was called by Ichigo, who was standing in front of the Christmas Tree with (bruises and all)

"After 'debating' the issue," Rukia sent Ichigo a threatening look as Ichigo used his hands to make quotation marks, "Rukia and I decided that this year we would pull names out of the hat to determine which presnt to be given first- and all the gifts are written on- bunny… post-it notes?"

Ichigo sent Rukia a look, who smiled in return, "Whatever, anyway the first will be-"

"Naruto!" Ichigo looked over to his blonde friend, "Ok, first off who did you have?"

"I had Ayame-neechan," Naruto walked over to the tree and pulled out a box wrapped in festive paper, "Here you go,"

"I wonder," Ayame began to unwrap the package, revealing a nice set of frying pans, "Wow, thank's Naruto-kun!"

"No problem," Naruto gave her a hug, "Oh by the way, these aren't cooking pans,"

"Huh?" Everyone looked at Naruto oddly for a moment before Ayame started to spontaneously laugh,

"Oh Naruto, that's funny," Ayame gave him a second hug, recognizing the inside joke, "Ok, who's next Ichigo?"

"Next is… Kakashi," Ichigo looked over to the jounin, "Who do you have?"

"I have Rukia,"

"I swear to Kami if you give me another one of those books-"

"It's not!" Kakashi put his hands up in the air, "That was a joke! It wasn't me anyway, Naruto set me up,"

"That is not true!"

"Anyway," Ichigo said, breaking up the argument before anyone got serious, "Do you have it with you?"

"It's near you," Kakashi said vaguely, "Rukia can find it can't she?"

"Hardy-har-har," Rukia sarcastically laughed as she walked over to where Ichigo was standing, "Where is it-"

"Freeze!"

Rukia looked at him confused until she saw him point upward, and the entire gathering looked up to find a small mistletoe with a tag saying 'From Kakashi, To Rukia,'

Hanging above Rukia and Ichigo,

"Enjoy!"

Kakashi disappeared in a Shunshin (Body Flicker Technique) just as a barrage of kunai, shuriken, and Rukia's tanto planted themselves in the seat where he was sitting,

"Um… Ok then…" Ichigo said awkwardly, a red blush on his face as Rukia stormed off in pursuit of Kakashi, "Next up is…"

**X=X=X**

**Cut!**

** Yeah, most people were happy about setting up last chapter to put two big-sword users against each other… I did three. Suck it world I own you!**

** Couple of important notes to this chapter;**

** -It took a lot of effort and blank spots to patch up this plotline so that Haku and Zabuza would be on Naruto/Ichigo's side, but it is done! Yay!**

** -Kisame is not in Akatsuki, or is he? :O Those of you who read the manga might have an idea of where I'm going with this,**

** -Hunter-nin were weak on purpose so that I could put the Demon Brothers back in the game briefly,**

** -****Hyōton: Shikei Shikkō no Hashira (Ice Style: Exectioner's Pillars)**** is a technique I created (on the Wiki Haku is listed to have **_**4**_** ninjutsu. ONLY 4)**

** -The brutal evidence destruction technique the Kiri Hunter-nin used is something secret, so how could I show it to you? He would come and kill you all!**

** -Rukia's badd-ass-ness is furthered!**

** -The shinigami uniform is used, as well as Kon! Oh the complications… fun-time!**

** -Hooray Omake! Lolz to Rukia Rage! (Fear the wrath!)**

** By an amazing intervention of God I managed to get in 5 extra days of break (2 from weekend, 3 from days of school in which I was home sick, then the break started) with no work. Talk about happy!**

** I just made all of you rage so… Merry Christmas… hate my guts later…**

** ~Crunch! (Random Cookies) :D**


	6. Ch6: Regroup

**To be simple I'm going to put a generic disclaimer here: If I owned Naruto, Bleach, or anything that earned me money, I would try to introduce too many unique ideas and have that position taken away from me, so the only thing I own is the plot, some attacks I have created (including names for attacks without names, along with names for people who are not given names) and a few OC's**

** Not much action, but that's for next chapter(s) :) enjoy! Posted not long after last chapter came out…**

**Demons/Summoning/Powerful People (like me :P)**

_Flashback/EMPHASIS_

Jutsu/Kido/Techniques

Ch6: Regrouping

_ "Damn," Naruto said as Ichigo finished describing his fight with Kisame and Zabuza, "You fought two guys with swords bigger than yours?"_

_ "I could have won too, but he surprised me," Ichigo said as he leaned back against the wall of the room, "Rukia, how's Kakashi doing?"_

_ "He could be better," Rukia replied, "I haven't had the time to try and learn __Shōsen Jutsu (Mystical Palm Technique)__ since it takes so delicate control, we need more medical ninja in our village damn it!__"_

_ "Rukia-neechan the others are sleeping!" Naruto said in a whisper-shout, Rukia was the only completely healthy of them all, upon reaching Tazuna's house everyone else had had too much Killer Intent, or had their ass kicked somehow._

_ And getting Haku (whom he now knew by name) and Zabuza here was a pain in the ass- hell, explaining what was happening was a pain in the ass,_

_ "Hello there," Rukia waved to an awakening Zabuza Momichi as she saw him stir, "Don't try anything or I will kill you right here, we outnumber you but we don't want to hurt you,"_

_ "Well then," Zabuza opened his eyes and sat up, looking around to see the rest of Team 7 lying down on cots similar to what he had been lying on, "What's going on,"_

_ "Kisame took your sword,"_

_ "What the hell?" Zabuza's eyes widened as he looked around, not spotting it, "That bastard, where is he?"_

_ "He said that if you wanted the sword back you should head with us to the bridge under construction, and that the bridge builder must be spared" Haku said as she walked into the room, "I am sorry Zabuza-dono… I tried,"_

_ "It's ok Haku," Zabuza said as she sat down next to him, "But now the question is, what about my mission, I might have to abort it at this point,"_

_ "If you try to go on with your mission we will fight you again," Ichigo said, "And at this point we will most likely kill you; you're still injured."_

_ "And if you try it afterwards it would be too late, the bridge will still be under our protection after Kisame leaves," Rukia continued, "And Kisame won't be alone, you can choose to continue with your mission, but you would have to fight your battle against multiple Hunter-nin and Kisame alone, last time Ichigo killed them all."_

_ "Fine then," Zabuza said, looking to Haku, "Send a message to short-fat man; he's on his own."_

_ "On my way," Haku was gone in an icy wind, leaving the four to continue their discussion,_

_ "Now, the rest of Team 7 should be waking up soon," Ichigo stood up and the others followed suit, "We could take this downstairs over breakfast,"_

_ "I wonder what Izumi-san is cooking," Naruto said, "Then again…"_

_ "Hmm?" Rukia asked as Naruto gave her pleading eyes, "What is it?"_

_ "Ra-"_

_ "No."_

_ Naruto's jaw dropped, "But ple-"_

_ "No."_

_ "I -"_

_ "No," Rukia said, "I am not fixing ramen in the middle of your mission. Period. Get it?"_

_ "Fine…" Naruto walked downstairs, "I'll see you guys at the table then,"_

_ Zabuza held Ichigo back as Ruki descended the stiars, "Ichigo, what was that power I experienced back there, when you killed all those Hunter-nin at once?"_

_ "That was a glimpse of what my max power is," Ichigo said, "I can beat this Kisame guy, don't worry about me,"_

_ "You put me to shame," Zabuza replied, "But yet you lack technique with your blade, I would love to take you on as an apprentice,"_

_ "I'm flattered," Ichigo said, "But I wouldn't leave Konoha now, not while my friends are there,"_

_ "I see," Zabuza let the conversation drop, "No matter, I will be meditating in the forest if anything comes up,"_

_ "What about breakfast?"_

_ "I think it would cause too much trouble," Zabuza said, "I need to train myself anyway, I can't let you and your posy steal my show again,"_

_ "You can try," Ichigo smirked as Zabuza disappeared in a small splash of water as Ichigo went down to the second floor after Naruto and Rukia, leaving Team 7 to their dreams,_

0-0-0

"I don't think he's going to turn on us Kakashi," Ichigo concluded as his flashback ended, "I can sense sincerity, and I can tell that's what I heard,"

"I trust you Ichigo," Kakashi said from his position in the cot, still recovering, "What do you propose we do now?"

"Train until the date Kisame set arrives," Ichigo replied, "That day changes everything, and I know your team isn't ready to handle this type of opponent yet,"

"Would you teach them while I recover?"

"We both know you would do it yourself, but you're too lazy to,"

"… Maybe?"

"I am going to do it and all, I was just calling your bluff," Ichigo smirked as he walked downstairs, "Don't worry, we'll be fine,"

Kakashi sighed as Ichigo left, making him the only one in the room; the others had made their leave already,

"How bad was it while I was out Kon?" Kakashi asked, "I heard Rukia had to use you to save Ichigo from Kisame, what happened?"

"I think that if the fish man didn't decide to leave," Kon paused dramatically as he walked out from Rukia's bag, "We might have all died."

"That is hard to believe though," Kakashi sighed, "Those kids are amazingly powerful for their age; it's shocking that this man took on both of them and Zabuza with the upper hand, then easily defeating Haku with a single blow,"

"It made me worry too," Kon replied, "But Rukia-neechan and Ichigo managed to 'scare him off,' so now we will be ready to fight him for real."

'I won't let him pull a stunt on me like Zabuza did,' Kakashi thought as he started to fall asleep again, 'This time we will win.'

0-0-0

"Ok runts listen up,"

The genin three turned to face Rukia, who was speaking, "Today Kakashi is being lazy, so we're in charge. First thing we will do today is use chakra to climb trees, like so,"

Rukia promptly turned and walked up the tree, then turned to the three genin and smirked, "Get this down by lunch,"

"Lunch?" Naruto exclaimed, "But Rukia-neechan, I need food to work this hard!"

"You just ate breakfast, so shut up," Rukia dropped from the tree and pointed at her foot, "The key is to release a specific amount of chakra from your feet, it varies from person to person, if you use to little, you will fall, if you use too much, you'll get kicked off-"

Rukia sweatdropped as she saw Sakrua walking on the tree perfectly, "That… was fast…"

"You said by noon right? Does that mean you had something else for us to learn?" Sakura asked, "Maybe I could get a head start?"

"Come," Rukia turned and motioned for her to follow, and she quickly came, "Remember you two, by noon."

"Alright then," Naruto turned to Sasuke and smirked, "Last one to the top gives lunch to the winner?"

Sasuke gained his own smirk, "Hn, your loss,"

Both of them immediately dashed at the tree- jumping onto the bark and running up the top,

And promptly falling flat on their asses,

"That was just practice, right Sasuke?"

"Hn,"

"Ok then," Naruto looked at the tree with determination, "Round 2,"

0-0-0

"Water-walking?" Sakura asked as the two walked through the forest, "So, I'm guessing it's a lot like tree climbing?"

"Yes, but it requires a lot more control, since unlike the tree-walking exercise the amount of chakra you need changes constantly," Rukia said as they reached the shore, "Now, to start out with you should just use the shoreline, since if you go farther out you go, the more likely you will fall, get wet, possibly catch a cold, and take a long break that would involve you forgetting some of the things you were doing unconsciously,"

"Alright then" Sakura turned to the shore line to see the water receding, "Let's try this out then,"

Sakura turned and walked into the shallow water, placing her feet on top of the waves and applying chakra- finding herself able to stick to it fairly easily,

Only to lose control and have it sink back to where it had been before,

"Good luck with that," Rukia said as she walked away, "If you finish that before noon, then go help your teammates with their stuff, they need it,"

0-0-0

"W-what is the meaning of this?" Gato smashed his fist onto his desk, only hurting himself of course, "You are resigning from the mission because you lost a weapon? That's absurd!"

"Perhaps you could say that in a nicer tone, before I rip your throat out," Haku said darkly, "I don't take kindly to these insults you see,"

"Get her!" Gato pointed at Haku, "Kill her now!"

Gato's two guards jumped at her with their swords ready to strike-

Only for both of their swords to be placed in Haku's talented hands and moved right under their throats,

"'Kill me'?" Haku looked at Gato with menacing eyes, "I think that this discussion might be finished another time, a time when you lie in a restless sleep in the cold of night, _then_ we will finish this discussion"

Haku twisted the swords and threw them at Gato, skiming his face and leaving small cuts on either side as she walked away,

'This... is outrageous!' Gato clenched his hands as Haku left the room, "Zori! Waraji! Get me my Bingo Book!"

"H-hai," Zori replied nervously, still shook up by Haku's show of talent,

"Those bastards won't get away with this!" Gato grit his teeth, "I will avenge this insult!"

0-0-0

"Round 35!"

Crash!

"Round 36!"

Crash!

"Round-"

"Shut up dobe!" Sasuke shouted, "We get the point!"

"Fine!" Naruto shouted, "We have about five minutes before Rukia-neechan comes here and starts wiping our asses all over the forest, so what great ideas do you have to figure out how to climb the tree baka!"

"You still didn't get it?" Naruto and Sasuke turned to see Sakura walk up to them from behind them, "I thought it wasn't that hard,"

"Please tell us Sakura!" Naruto begged at her feet, "If we don't get this down in three minutes Rukia-neechan will wipe our asses all over the forest floor! Please!"

Between the desperate plea of Naruto and the worried look on Sasuke's face, Sakura caved in, "It's like maintaining a Henge (Transformation Technique), you have to have the exact type of result expected in your mind and be confident in it,"

"Confidence and Concentration?" Naruto said to himself as he got up and turned towards the tree, "Henge (Transformation Technique) is one of the techniques I was best at in the Academy, if it works like that it shouldn't be too hard,"

Naruto and Sasuke dashed at the tree from their spots on the ground,

"Round 38!"

0-0-0

"Looks like you runts did it," Rukia said as she walked into the clearing, spotting both Naruto and Sasuke standing on top of the trees she had set them up to, "Great, lunch is ready at the house, so get yourselves in gear,"

"Wohoo!" Naruto shouted as he dropped from the tree, "And by the way Sasuke, you owe me lunch,"

"Actually _you_ owe _me_ lunch dobe," Sasuke said as the three walked away from the clearing, "I beat you to the top of that tree,"

"No way," Naruto replied, "I beat you there by three seconds, so deal with it,"

"I saw the whole thing, you tied, so shut up," Rukia ended the conversation as they started towards the village, "And of course you would use food for a bet Naruto,"

"Rukia-san?" Rukia looked next to her to see Saukra looking up at her, her legs rather soaked,

"What is it?"

"I did it."

"Congratulations," Rukia patted the girl on the back, "You're learning speed is incredible, I might need to have Ichigo teach you separately at this rate,"

Sakura blushed at the compliment as they arrived at the house, "T-thank you,"

"Think nothing of it," Rukia sighed as Naruto zoomed towards the house, 'Maybe I should have let Sasuke win the bet, that way Naruto won't be so hyper when he sees the-'

"RAAAAAMMMMMEEEEENNN!"

0-0-0

"Good job Haku," Zabuza laughed as she finished telling her tale, "Now, I think I ought to teach you a few new tricks since we're going to be facing an opponent using Suiton (Water Style) like myself, you will be very helpful facing him,"

"With my Hyoton? (Ice Style?)" Haku asked, "What do you propose I do?"

"Freeze his attacks," Kakashi said, "You're style is deadly against his, and while he has much more chakra behind his attacks, your Ice could stop his attacks cold- pun unintended,"

"How do you propose I do that," Haku asked, "Since I am the only one here who can use Ice, how could you teach me to do something like that?"

"Practice," Kakashi replied, "Zabuza, if you would be so kind,"

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu! (Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!)"

Haku jumped back and barely avoided the blast of water, which created a miniature lake where it landed,

"Now, use one of your Ice techniques," Kakashi said, revealing his sharingan, "I can try to figure out how you mold chakra in an attempt to create a way for you to use Ice against Kisame,"

Haku turned to Zabuza, who gave her the signal that it was ok, before turning and running through hand seals rapidly,

"Hyōton: Shikei Shikkō no Hashira! (Ice Style: Exectioner's Pillars!)"

A tall pillar emerged from the water, causing the water close to it to freeze up, but not freezing the entire surface of the water,

"Interesting," Kakashi said as he pondered what he had seen with his sharingan eye, "Rukia would be helpful now, since she knows the basis of chakra very well, I'm old and rusty,"

"You needed me?" Rukia asked as she came into the clearing, "I just dropped your team off to eat lunch, they finished tree climbing, and Sakura finished water walking also- she has excellent control,"

"We've been brainstorming on how to use Haku's Ice techniques against Kisame," Kakashi said, "And I just observed one of Haku's techniques, perhaps you could help us dissect and recreate it?"

Rukia walked up to the pillar, placing her hand on it, letting the cool feeling sink in, "Ice is a combination of water and wind elements correct?"

"It is, but I do not know any techniques of either," Haku said,

"That doesn't matter for now, I have an idea or two based upon what Kakashi is about to tell me," Rukia turned back to Kakashi and asked, "What did you see then?"

0-0-0

"Rukia-neechan's ramen is the best!"

"Naruto, you've said that over nine-thousand times already!" Sakura complained to her blonde teammate as she ate, "I admit, it is good, _really_ good, but you don't have to say it that many times,"

"Hn."

"Rukia-san is an excellent cook," Tsunami said, "Perhaps she could fix dinner as well,"

"Hooray!"

"Naruto..." Naruto turned to Sakura, who quickly implanted her fist into his face, "SHUT UP!"

Naruto was sent flying by the sudden attack and hit the wall, hard,

"So mean Sakura…" Naruto mumbled as he held his head, "That hurt, you should apologize..."

"Why should she, idiot," Naruto looked to his side to see a young boy staring at him with a scowl,

"I am not an idiot, no matter what they say," Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sasuke and Sakura before turning to face the kid again, "What's your name?"

"How can you be so carefree?" the boy shouted, "You're going to die, all of you!"

"Well no duh kid, everyone dies-"

"Shut up!" Naruto caught the fist flying at him from the boy, letting it go as he ran off,

"Inari come back!" Tsumani cried out, only to fall on deaf ears, "I'm so sorry about that, I'll bring him in to apologize later-"

"No, it's ok," Naruto replied, "I just want to know why he was so worked up, he sounded like an emotional Sasuke that talked,"

"Hn,"

"Inari has been pessimistic about life since his father and step father died," Tazuna said as he came in the door, "His first father, his biological one, died soon after his birth from an accident, but his step father was killed by Gato,"

"He thinks Gato can kill us?" Naruto smiled, "Well, not by himself I'm sure, especially since the people he hired are on our side now-"

"They wha-!" Sakura turned to him in surprise, "You mean-"

"Yeah, that's where Ichigo, Kakashi and probably Rukia are right now," Naruto said, "While you were knocked out Hunter-nin came after us and took Zabuza's sword, then they told him that if he didn't abort his mission and come to the bridge he wouldn't get it back,"

"It's a miracle," Tazuna said, "Our enemy is our ally, thank Kami,"

"But now Hunter-nin will be fighting us on the bridge," Naruto said, "Ichigo said we have about a week from the day we met the guy who took the sword, which means we meet him this coming Saturday,"

"So the bridge will be under attack, but not directly," Tazuna sighed, "That's a relief, if it gets too banged up we can always fix it, and you will stay until it does get finished won't you?"

"I hope so," Sakura said, "We don't want this Gato person to hire someone else to attack the bridge after the Hunter-nin leave, that would be a disaster,"

"I wouldn't be too worried about Gato," Naruto said, "I heard Haku went and told them what was up, I bet she scared the heck out of them,"

"Haku?"

"Oh right, you haven't met her," Naruto exclaimed, "Haku is Zabuza's apprentice, daughter, or whatever, she's really nice when she isn't trying to kill you, and she's strong."

0-0-0

'Interesting,' Kisame thought as he read the letter he had received from his Mizukage, 'He wants the blonde kid? This makes everything much more fun, but he's not sending anymore Hunter-nin?'

Kismae smiled, he hated his fellow hunter-nin, none of them were as powerful or thought the same way as he did- no synchronicity at all, unlike the special forces that the Yondaime Mizukage made him familiar with.

"What is the word Kisame-taicho?" one of the Hunter-nin asked, "Are we to advance?"

"No," Kisame said, "You all are to go back and help combat the revolutionaries while I stay here and retrieve Zabuza's head,"

"Are you sure that you could take on all of them at once?" Kisame sent a threatening look towards the Hunter-nin who spoke the question, "I-I'm not saying you couldn't, but they seemed rather powerful last time, they took out the majority of the platoon rather quickly,"

"I could take them on myself," Kisame replied, "But Mizukage-sama is sending one of his special forces to assist me, he seems to be interested in this group of Konoha shinobi."

"S-Special forces?" The Hunter-nin's mood became anxious, "Is he that serious?"

"Yes, apparently," Kisame replied, "I think he's been feeling trigger happy recently anyway, No surprise he would want to do _something_ besides kill those idiot revolutionaries, I'm sure the special forces are tired of it too,"

"I will mobilize the remainder of our unit to return to Kirigakure then," The Hunter-nin disappeared in a flash, leaving Kisame to look up at the sky,

'Heh, I haven't felt anything so threatening in a long time, you know it too Samehada,' Kisame grinned as his sword gave a muffled response from within his wrapping, 'He didn't fear death, and he backed up what he said about it too, I will enjoy fighting that boy again,'

''Ichigo' was the name huh?'

0-0-0

"Before we fight Kisame again I wanted to try and improve your technique," Zabuza said as he walked over to Ichigo, who was standing in his normal fighting stance with Zangetsu, "Shoulder higher, crouch lower a bit,"

"I never really gave any thought to how I fought before," Ichigo commented as Zabuza's critique continued, "Is it important or something?"

Zabuza gave him a stunned look, "Are you telling me that one day you just picked up that sword and started swinging it with no real guidance at all?"

"Not really," Ichigo rubbed his head in embarrassment, "All I had on my mind was to protect my friends,"

'That is true talent,' Zabuza thought, "How long have you been using this blade?"

"A while, it feels like forever though," Ichigo replied, "Zangetsu is a part of me, that's how it works,"

"You have experience, I have technique," Zabuza concluded, "Let me give you a crash course,"

"In what?"

"Seven Swordsman Apprenticeship,"

"There's such a thing?"

"Kid, Kirigakure was always pressed about making sure everyone was serious about their skills," Zabuza said, "You had to stay alive under one of the seven long enough to outlive them and outmaster them, in my case the guy was an idiot and he got killed by an executive order, but usually they are passed down similarly to how the academy works-"

"Fight to the death?" Zabuza nodded, "That's… sickening,"

"You see why I want to kill that bastard Yagura?" Zabuza said, "That's why I stoop low enough to take jobs like this, but now that this is over I'll have to find something else with good pay,"

Zabuza shook his head briefly, regaining his train of thought, "Anyway, first thing in the crash course is to physically spar with me, but we've done that, and we've also demonstrated our chakra capabilities-"

"I don't use chakra,"

"What?" Zabuza asked, stunned again, "No chakra?"

"It is physically impossible for me to mold chakra," Ichigo said, "I've been tested for it, I simply do not have a Chakra system."

Zabuza's eyes widened, "This… This is perfect!"

Ichigo looked at him confused until he explained himelf, "Kisame's sword, Samehada, is so effective because it sucks its opponent's chakra overwhelming and draining their resources," Zabuza concluded, "Then you are the perfect opponent for him,"

"Kisame's sword sucked chakra?" Ichigo asked, "No wonder he was so powerful, that would be effective against anyone else."

'You have been a goldmine of everything I needed to fight Kisame since I met you,' Zabuza thought to himself, 'I don't care about Konoha loyalty or any of that shit, you will be my apprentice damnit!'

0-0-0

"Water-walking?" Naruto asked as Rukia walked them to the shoreline where Sakura had been earlier, "We just learned how to climb trees!"

"Exactly," Rukia said, "This way you get both basic skills at once, and we're guarding a bridge, do you really think that you _won't_ deal with water at all?"

"Well, it shouldn't be that hard anyway," Naruto replied, "Tree climbing wasn't so bad, this should be a cinch,"

"It's actually really hard," Sakura said, "But you get used to it,"

"It shouldn't be that hard," Naruto walked up to the shore line and into the shallow water, "Just watch me do it on the first tr-"

Naruto stumbled and fell face-first into the water, causing Rukia to laugh, "You have fun with that while I take Sakura and teach her the next step,"

"There's another form of walking?" Sakura asked,

"No, but this is to perfect your mastery," In a flash Rukia had grabbed Sakura's hitae-ate and jumped back far onto the water, "Come and get it,"

"What?" Sakura said, exasperated, "I have to fight on the water?"

"This is something you must absolutely master," Rukia said as Sakura slowly walked onto the water near her, "Jumping, fast movement, sliding, those are all things you must be able to do through chakra on any surface, you can not advance until you have those things down,"

Rukia motioned for Sakura to come as she took a stance, "You also can not advance if you do not have your hitae-ate,"

'This sounds a lot like the bell test,' Sakura thought, 'That means I can't really get my hitae-ate back until Naruto or Sasuke-kun finish their own exercise, what should I do?'

Sakura thought for a moment before using her hand seals, "Bunshin no Jutsu! (Clone Jutsu!)"

Sakura created several clones to either side of her and began to move forward, rushing over the water towards Rukia,

'Interesting,' Rukia thought as Sakura came closer, 'She is very talented, it's a shame her fangirlism and low chakra storage get in her way,'

0-0-0

"This sucks!" Naruto said as he stomped his foot onto the water repeatedly, "Why the heck won't it stick?"

"Naruto calm down!" Naruto jumped back as Sakura washed up next to them, only her head sticking out of the water, "Litsen, its not like tree climbing, it's a matching game."

"Matching game?"

"Yeah, the water gives out a random level of chakra needed to stick every second or so and you have to guess the pattern in order to stick to it,"

"Aren't you supposed to be training with Rukia?" Sasuke dismissed her attempt to help them,

"She took my hitae-ate, and she told me something that reminded me about the bell test," Sakura said, "I'll need your help to get it back,"

"Sure thing," Naruto said, smiling as his foot began to stick, "I'll be their in a sec-WOAH!"

Sakura let a sweatdrop fall as Naruto attempted to stand on the water, only to fall face-first again,

Sasuke soon did the same thing,

'This might take a while…'

0-0-0

"Try it again Haku," Kakashi said, "You were closer, just change the second to last and last seals,"

Haku complied and, using both hands, went through the hand seals as instructed and reached out to touch the lake, creating a patch of ice where her hand touched it,

"Closer, but it's not as wide-ranged as we need it to be," Kakashi said as he recalled what he observed through his sharingan eye, "How much more chakra do you have left?"

"I can keep going, don't worry about me," Haku replied sweetly, "But what about you, that eye requires a lot of chakra doesn't it?"

"My reserves are far greater than yours," Kakashi waved off Haku's concern, "But I am very perplexed, No matter how I switch up the last two seals it doesn't come out right, the seals are correct though, but neither of the two possible combinations work out right,"

"Perhaps I should try it again with the original method?" Haku asked, "Perhaps starting from where we began would be a good way to determine our progress?"

"Alright then," Kakashi closed his good eye and let his sharingan activate again, "Let's see it,"

0-0-0

"Got it!" Naruto exclaimed as he stood on the water, Sasuke standing beside him similarly, "Now all we need to do is run and kick Rukia-neechan's ass!"

"My clones won't last long against her," Sakura said, "She's going to find out sooner or later so-"

"Tch," Sasuke dashed forward, using the water to slide as he turned,

"Show off!" Naruto complained as he ran after him, "Wait up!"

Sasuke reached Rukia, who was dodging through Sakura's clones and charged in, taking out two kunai and attacking her, forcing her to draw her tanto to defend herself,

"I will prove my strength now," Sasuke said as his kunai locked against Rukia's blade, "By defeating you!"

"Says the baby genin that just learned to walk," Rukia taunted Sasuke as she backed out from the lock, letting Sasuke take the offense, "Is this it?"

"I'll show you!" Sasuke let his eyes unleash his two-tomoe sharingan in an attempt to show force, causing her to-

Laugh?

Rukia began to laugh as Sasuke continued his assault on her, "Wow, I'm so scared of your immature Sharingan when I spar with one of the most experienced jounin on equal grounds while he uses his mature sharingan, very threatening,"

Sasuke's anger quadrupled as he placed his hands together, "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Great Fireball!)"

Rukia disappeared from Sasuke's eyes as the giant fireball covered everything directly in front of him,

"Suiton: Teppōdama (Water Style: Liquid Bullet)!"

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock as his fireball was extuinguished by a large blast of water, which crashed into him and forced him under,

"You're not done yet Rukia-neechan!" Rukia looked up to see Naruto running on the remainder of the water and jumping at her, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shadow Clone Jutsu!)"

Rukia smirked as Naruto's clones surrounded her and began to pour in, "Interesting tactic Naruto, but you can't overwhelm me like this,"

'No wonder Naruto used her image to take the bells during the bell test,' Sasuke thought as he got up and stood on the water again, 'I will prove myself though,'

"Ok kiddos, that's enough for today," Rukia said as she dispatched the last of Naruto's clones, sending the real one flying off into the water, "And nice try Sakura, I realized your strategy as soon as you started, but you were very convincing," Rukia turned and looked down at the water below her, pulling out Sakura's hitae-ate, "Here, you deserve it,"

Sakura emerged from the water underneath Rukia and tied her headband into her wet hair, "I really did well?"

"It looks like Kakashi-baka's bell test teamwork building idea worked, since you went to help your teammates first," Rukia said, "That's what this was about; real combat experience and realizing that you need others in order to accomplish your goals,"

"What about the rest of the week?" Sakura asked, "Are we going to do this until the bridge is under attack?"

"And you're going to enjoy it," Rukia held Sakura's shoulder as the two walked towards Tazuna's house side by side, "Who knows, maybe the prick will notice you at some point,"

Sakura blushed as the two came upon the other two genin and continued on towards Tazuna's house as the day ended, only four days remaining until Kisame came back.

**X=X=X**

**Cut!**

** I think I forgot this in the last chapter but this is a FemHaku fic- she should have been a girl and now she is, so there! :) **

** Couple of important notes to this chapter;**

** -Zabuza is more worried about his sword than the money- if he doesn't have his sword, but he has the money, he couldn't kill the Mizukage if he had a trillion dollars (just and example, besides the weapon is half the reason and reasoning to get people on his side, who doesn't think people with big ass swords can do the impossible?)**

**-Training is being sped up due to the attack of hunter nin, which Naruto got lucky in defeating last time- they sent the weaker ones since Kisame was there, but now they will be serious!**

** -Gato's Bingo Book? o.O What could this mean?**

** -The idea that Tree climbing is similar to ****Henge (Transformation Technique)**** was something I thought up, but its true isn't it? Henge takes concentration to determine the exact image you will create around yourself while exerting a specific amount of chakra, a lot of techniques are like that actually, but in any case, that's what I think of it.**

** -Rukia knows a heck of a lot of jutsu since she doesn't enjoy using Kon (who would? He's a pervert and letting him control your body would be awkward, just ask Ichigo) and Ichigo uses the glove when he can (explained later chapters! ^^ ) and her Shikai is Ice-themed, so in my mind it makes perfect sense to have her leading the ideas for the Ice Jutsu scheme, which is something I thought was a cool idea (again, pun unintended)**

** -Naruto likes ramen over 9000! LolZ**

** -'Special forces?' What could this mean? I know! But you don't :P**

** -Zabuza training Ichigo to fight Kisame? Rukia teaching Team 7 basic skills? Kakashi creating Ice Jutsu for Haku? The fun just doesn't end!**

** -I am one of the people that would like to see Team 7 be more of a team, because if they are divided than it turns into bashing someone- and no matter who it is I hate bashing, and in order to prevent that further I'm making it more team-oriented :)**

** Managed to do two 5,000 word chapters (one for here, the other for my other fic) in a single day, life is good.**

** Have fun with your two turtle doves (and a partridge in a pear tree), if you don't understand then bah-humbug to you then!  
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**CHECK PROFILE FOR IMPORTANT POLL! Cant really keep going till I figure out this important thing... _Check it!_ I listen to you people... to a certain extent (since I control the choices because some people would troll a little _too_ much) will be followed by a second poll later... unless I just choose who will apear based on the results. Oh whatever**

** ~Crunch! (Random Cookies) :D**


	7. Ch7: Blood Red Dawn

**To be simple I'm going to put a generic disclaimer here: If I owned Naruto, Bleach, or anything that earned me money, I would try to introduce too many unique ideas and have that position taken away from me, so the only thing I own is the plot, some attacks I have created (including names for attacks without names, along with names for people who are not given names) and a few OC's**

**I said I would update by Sunday, and then I realized that I had make-up work :'( so I did this Friday, published it today with a few quirks etc…**

**Warning, this will be rough near the end, it gets better.**

**Demons/Summoning/Powerful People (like me :P)**

_Flashback/EMPHASIS_

Jutsu/Kido/Techniques

Ch7: Blood Red Dawn

The week had passed quickly.

It was today.

Ichigo and Kakashi had spoken with Zabuza the previous night and decided. Zabuza would come to Konoha's side in return for assisting him.

It was logical- why should they go out on a limb when they were already out on a limb? They should have turned down as soon as it became out of their league, the Hokage would accept Kakashi's judgment if he told him afterwards, but if he would have been with them at the decision the experienced jounin was sure he would disapprove.

But would he?

Never mind that though, it was the day.

Today.

Kakashi had told Tazuna to clear the bridge the day before and have the workers take everything off the bridge in preparation to retrieve Zabuza's sword, they were in no doubt going to fight Kisame again, and he wouldn't just taunt them and give them the blade without a fight.

Ichigo seemed to want a rematch as well, he was too eager though. He didn't show it but he could see it in his eyes- had the training he himself given the teen worn off when he stopped taking missions with him? Would it have been better to bring him along?

Kakashi shook off the thoughts again and cleared his mind, looking out over the sea that stood beyond the end of the bridge, waiting.

0-0-0

When.

Ichigo's mind was telling him he needed to stay back with Team 7, but he knew Kisame wanted to fight him again.

He knew he wanted to fight him too.

But he had to stay here!

Ichigo clenched his fists, would just Kakashi, Haku and Zabuza be enough?

But he had to stay back!

These thoughts continued to create a paradox within his mind as he sat in the house of Tazuna's family, sitting on his futon while he tried to sort his thoughts out.

In the end he knew he would stay, but he wanted to go so bad-

UGH!

0-0-0

Everything was set, well, kind of,

Zabuza was unsure about this plan of Kakashi's, if everything went downhill, which he suspected it might, then they would die, and Ichigo or Rukia would have to come save their asses- dead or alive.

It made his adrenaline pump

And he liked it.

Evert thump of the heart in his throat was a sign that he was going to fight someone for real, on his terms. Something that hadn't happened since his last assassination attempt behind. It rejuvenated him.

Time was unimportant, what was important was that he would fight, and someone would die. If it was his own death, then that would be fine. He couldn't avoid this battle anyway. If it was his enemies, than it was on their own head, no pun intended.

What if he did die though?

The thought was unusual to him in his profession, but considering the stakes were rather high, it wasn't that out of the question. What if he did die?

What if he lived?

Why was he dwelling on this?

He heard the birds fly overhead, crows from what it sounded like.

Wait, crows?

"Heh, you _did_ come,"

Zabuza was startled as he saw something hurling through the air at him, instinctively he-

Reached out and grabbed it?

Kubikiribōchō.

"Where's the spunky kid I fought earlier? I didn't kill him did I?" Kisame asked as he casually walked into his view from seemingly nowhere, only for Kakashi to also appear alongside Zabuza,

"You don't have enough in you to kill Ichigo," Kakashi's words rang as he drew a kunai, "I have yet to meet a person who really could,"

Kisame frowned, "Ichigo isn't here, but you instead?" Kisame frowned, "That sucks, how does Itachi always get the fights I want when it's a random matchup? It's not fair-"

"Itachi?"

Both of the jounin rank nin facing the blue skinned man were shocked,

"Shit!"

0-0-0

"Why are we out here practicing when we could be fighting?"

"Because Rukia-neechan said we weren't ready," Sakura reminded Naruto as Team 7 sparred on the open water, practicing and perfecting one of the first things they had learned that weak, "Why do you want to go so bad Naruto?"

"I want to be stronger," Naruto used a kunai to block a swipe from Sakura, who in turn rolled away from Sasuke's attempt at them both, but Naruto blocked him in turn, "Ichigo said that the best way to become stronger is to fight people who are stronger than you,"

CLANG!

"Hn,"

Sasuke bounced away from the lock he was in with Naruto to dodge an underwater attack from Sakura, who had become skilled in it, only for both of them to be bombarded with a barrage of shuriken from Naruto,

"But not people that are out of your league completely," Sakura argued, "Getting killed will not make you stronger,"

Somewhere very, very far away, possibly in a different dimension entirely, a man by the name of Kenpachi sneezed.

Hard.

Naruto let himself sink into the water to avoid a clash with Sasuke, letting Sakura come up behind him with the intention to take him in close quarters,

"Tch," Sasuke flipped over the incoming Sakura and landed gracefully,

So graceful, in fact, that he slipped and fell flat on his face, submerging in the water.

Naruto emerged behind him laughing as Sasuke came back to his senses, "That was… priceless! WE should have gotten that on taAPE!"

Naruto's fluctuation of voice was explained by Sasuke pulling him under- filling his mouth with water,

"What the heck-"

CAW~!

They all stopped.

What was that sound?

CAW~!

A bird? No, a crow; a raven,

"It seems you have made little progress, brother,"

The three genin were shocked by the appearance of a man from a flock of crows- he wore a black cloak with red clouds and a slashed konoha hitae-ate,

'Missing-nin?' Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by Sasuke's sudden dash at the man, "Sasuke what are you-"

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Great Fireball!)"

Naruto saw the ball of fire go up and new Sasuke was going for the kill, whoever this person was-

Wait. Kill?

0-0-0

"_Oi, your turn duck-butt," Sasuke gave Naruto one of his famous evil glares before continuing,_

"_As you all know, I am Sasuke Uchiha. My like, dislikes, and hobbies are my own business, but," Sasuke's eyes hardened- something that they had not been doing previously, "I have a dream to kill a certain man."_

0-0-0

'Was this the man Sasuke wanted to kill?' Naruto wondered as he saw Sasuke try to attack the man physically, 'His brother?'

"DIE ALREADY! JUST DIE!"

Naruto and Sakura were so shocked by his sudden outburst of emotion they barely noticed the fight before them,

Until it ended that is.

Sasuke was suddenly grabbed out of the air by the man and held up, allowing him to stare into his eyes,

All was silent.

Naruto's eyes widened as Sasuke dropped hard with a splash of water and began to sink into the lake,

"SASUKE!"

"Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto,"

Naruto looked up in anger at the man that claimed to be the brother of his teammate, who was calmly looking at the two conscious members of Team 7,

"You will come with me."

"NEVER!"

"As if you had a choice,"

Itachi just stood there; looking at them, with every moment Naruto could only wonder what he could be doing-

Unless…

"Sakura, don't look at his ey-"

Movement!

Naruto's words were cut off by a sudden kunai that flew in their direction, which he dodged- pushing Sakura out of the way,

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Multiple Shadow Clone Justu!)"

Itachi raised an eyebrow as Naruto formed countless clones of himself, all facing him, surrounding him on all sides

"Such an advanced technique…"

Naruto ran at Itachi regardless, his massive army of clones spreading out closer to the dark haired man,

"Do you know it's one, worst weakness?" Itachi closed his eyes and moved his hands at unrealistic speeds, "It is something I learned myself,"

Naruto, the original, paused, 'Weakness?'

"Bunshin Daibaku! (Great Clone Exploding Technique!)"

0-0-0

The explosion did not stop the battle with Kisame, who had immediately begun to engage them after the explosion went off, bringing Kakashi to a single conclusion.

It was a trap.

This whole business was a trap, whoever it was designed to catch in it was a separate issue though- why did Kisame want him to fight Itachi? Did Itachi have the advantage over him?

He must have better control over the sharingan, but is he after Sasuke?

Kisame was fooling around with Zabuza, who was faring well while Kakashi and Haku set up their preparations; this was a delicate game to play. And they knew Kisame had his own games to play.

If Zabuza or himself tried to leave, they would lose their advantage and Kisame would kill off one of them and chase the others- they had to stick here or go there, and if they went there their enemies would be together, and they were more likely synergetic than Kakashi's group.

Kisame was playing with Zabuza, who was still slightly off from the battle before, and he was not enough to face off against Kisame on his own anyway,

"Sensatsu Suishō! (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death!)"

Haku released a thousand flying water needles from the misty air, all aimed at Kisame as Zabuza took a three-second breather,

A matter of time.

Zabuza jumped back at Kisame before he could go after Haku and clashed blades, parrying several blows as Kakashi began to approach them,

They locked bades-

Kakashi ran up to them, lunging for Kisame from behind with his right hand brought back- prepared for a thrust,

"Raikiri! (Lightning Cutter!)"

0-0-0

'W… what was that?'

Naruto and Sakura had gotten below the water after Itachi unleashed his technique, which blew the shore nearby sky-high. Sand was drifting in the air and Naruto was recalling memories of exploding.

_Lots _of them.

"I must admit, this was impressive Naruto,"

Naruto looked up from the water and saw Itachi submerged in the water beside him, floating eerily in the calm waters,

Spinning eyes-

'Shi-'

"But now you have lost."

Naruto's world spun- suddenly finding himself strapped to a cross in the middle of a red nowhere,

"And having lost,"

"You will pay the price,"

Naruto looked in fear as he was surrounded by multiple Itachi, each of them carrying a tanto pointing at him,

"GAH!"

Naruto screamed as the tantos were thrown at him- each hitting him hard enough to sink through his body and into the cross behind him- his mind became numb,

The ritual seemed to continue forever, until finally Itachi held up his hand and spoke,

"Congratulations, half a second has passed," Itachi smirked, "71 hours, 59 minutes, and 59.5 seconds remaining,"

"NO~!"

0-0-0

'N-Naruto? Sasuke!' Sakura went ballistic as she pulled Sasuke to the surface, only to find Naruto on the shoulder of the man that had looked him in the eye a second ago

Defeated.

Knocked out cold.

"Take care of my brother," Itachi said casually as he turned to leave, stepping out into the ocean-

Only to jump to the side as he avoided a swipe from a large sword-

Zangetsu.

"I think I'll take back my friend now," Itachi looked on in interest as he saw a man with orange hair, wearing a black robe with a red rope and a white rope present underneath the black one, walk calmly onto the water, staring at him with his eyebrows arched, "Will you let him go willingly, or will I have to kick your ass first?"

KAW!

Ichigo flinched, turning his head and seeing a crow fly between them, swooping down and grabbing a fish out of the water as it flew away

"What are you here for?"

"Nothing in particular."

"Then leave,"

"I think I will stay as long as I want,"

Ichigo looked up and saw the man's eyes turn red,

"Tell me, Kurosaki Ichigo," Ichigo shielded his eyes as the man walked forward- his eyes glowing red and a black circle was spinning,

Itachi walked within arm's reach of Ichigo and stood calmly, "What do you see?"

"I… I see…"

Ichigo lifted his arms from his face to reveal,

A smirk?

"NOTHING!"

Before Itachi could process what had happened Ichigo had reached and grabbed Naruto, turning and tossing him to the shore with his other teammates and slash Zangetsu down towards Itachi- missing as Itachi regained his composure,

"I don't know how you got that eye," Ichigo stated, as he ran forward, bringing down his large sword against Itachi's two reverse-grip kunai, "But I know that only three people exist with that eye, I know two already, so you must be-"

"Uchiha Itachi,"

0-0-0

"Nice try!"

Kakashi smashed his Raikiri (Lightning Cutter) into Kisame's blade, only to be merely batted away as the giant blade sucked the chakra right off his hand,

'So fast!' Kakashi exclaimed as the energy left his hand and he retreated back, and Zabuza was forced to do the same,

"Suiton: Bakusui Shōha! (Water Style: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!)"

'This is it!'

Zabuza had gone over the scenario a million times in his mind when Kakashi and Rukia explained it- Haku had to do this perfectly,

"Hyoton: Chikyū no Shimo! (Ice Style: Frost of the Earth!)"

Zabuza grasped his great sword and implanted it perpendicular to the ground as Haku appeared between him and the wall of water- initiating the jutsu,

The water froze instantly- at least the blunt face of the wave,

Zabuza stood on his sword and reached out, grabbing Haku's foot and allowing her to vault over the wave and land on the wall of ice,

"Ame ga Futte Suishō! (Raining Water Needles of Death!)"

The water that had been stopped by the wall of ice was now being reversed- forming millions of water needles headed towards Kisame,

'Well this is interesting,'

Kisame smirked as the needles covered the sky,

'I can afford to take a few hits here,' Kisame put Samehada on his back and extended his arms out to either side,

"Now let's see," Kisame grinned as the needles flew down, releasing chakra from his body in insane burst, "If any of them can actually hit me,"

0-0-0

'Nothing?'

Itachi held a calm face as his kunai blocked the monstrous sword that Ichigo called Zangetsu, finding the blade was heavier than his opponent made it seem,

'I know that he looked into my eyes,' Itachi thought, 'So why?'

"I think I have a few questions-"

CLANG!

Itachi pushed back and Ichigo stepped back- an opening for Itachi to throw one of his kunai at him,

"What about?"

Ichigo dodged expertly,

"-About why you just, oh I don't know, killed off your clan," Ichigo clenched his fists and let his blade whack at the older Uchiha, "Because it doesn't look like those fancy eyes you got from it do much in my perspective,"

'So he's immune to my genjutsu?' Itachi grit his teeth as he pulled back from the angry Shinigami, 'But not ninjutsu, and I know that he can't mold chakra for that matter,'

Itachi's hands flew, "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!)"

"Getsuga Tenshō! (Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer!)"

Itachi wondered what type of monstrous opponent he had stumbled onto as the black wave incinerated his great orange flame,

"And now-"

Itachi's eyes were active as he watched Ichigo hold his sword in front of him- his eyes blazing, pure energy rising around him,

"Bankai! (Final Release!)"

Itachi's eyes widened as the boy changed dress and weaponry,

"Now," Ichigo whispered into Itachi's ear, "Let's dance,"

0-0-0

"Did it work?"

Zabuza and Haku stood side by side, looking on as the misty air from the water disappeared from sight,

"Tsk," Kisame cracked his neck and stretched, "If a little rain could kill me I would stay out of Ame, and yet I go there every other week or so,"

'He didn't take a single hit though?' Zabuza took the sword in his hand and backed away with Haku, "You go to Ame?"

"I have a few old friends," Kisame shrugged, "None of your business really-"

~Plosh!

Kisame took a single step from his location and wondered why Haku was so eager to use his jutsu again,

"Hyoton: Chikyū no Shimo! (Ice Style: Frost of the Earth!)"

The water near Haku began to freeze and progressed towards him, but Kisame merely shrugged as he went through his own handseals,

"Suiton: Suikōdan no Jutsu! (Water Style: Water Shark Bullet Technique!)"

The water around Kisame surged- rising around him in two spiraling missiles of water with sharks as heads,

"These Jutsu are nothing," Kisame extended his arm towards the ice wall and the two missiles launched-

Suddenly his missiles gained a lighter, brighter blue hue-

With a neon glow?

Then it hit him.

And it moved to fast for him to dodge-

"Raikiri! (Lightning Cutter!)"

Kisame grit his teeth as the water current caught him off guard- suddenly remembering the ice technique.

The ice did not conduct the electricity.

'I was too careless,' Kisame heard his sword scream out in pain- but then again only he could hear it, 'But this is something I can deal with,'

Despite the pain Kisame called upon his large chakra reserves,

"Ōkibo na Suirō no Jutsu! (Great Water Prison Technique!)"

0-0-0

Itachi was troubled. When he left Kisame to go find the jinchuriki he realized the absence of two dangerous opponents; Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki.

He had decided it was a trivial matter and that he could defeat them easily if need be, but then the former revealed immunity to his bloodline.

That was startling.

Along with the fact that his attacks were physically stronger than his own, he had a large amount of chakra behind him to back himself up, which led to another problem,

No chakra.

No chakra meant that he couldn't use genjutsu on him, because he simply did not have a chakra system. And since genjutsu was fluctuations in one's chakra system he was immune to it.

And after using Tsukuyomi (Moon Reader) three successive times, he wasn't in the greatest condition.

Ichigo either knew that, or was just ticked off, because after using one of his techniques without chakra, his blade had shrunk.

At first, he wondered if he was being underestimated. But that changed when Ichigo took his first step,

Because his first step went _past_ Itachi.

Shunshin (Body Flicker Technique) was not as fast, and that technique required chakra. The closest thing he could think of would be Gai's physical state, and that was his _only_ focus.

This was something he would have never expected.

And when all those thoughts finished going through Itachi's head he ducked- losing a strand of hair to a slice from the thin, black katana.

He brought up his kunai to block it from coming back and he blocked, but Ichigo's speed was uncanny, and he had prepared a third swipe by the time Itachi had recovered from his block. His only way to avoid the swipe was to let himself sink into the water, daring the orange-haired teen to come after him,

'This is sucking!' Ichigo clenched his sword as he looked around for signs of the man in the black cloak and red clouds, 'I'm faster, stronger, but he's slicker, there's no way I can get him at this rate!'

Ichigo suddenly noticed a small trickle of blood on the water where the man had stood,

'At least I hit him-'

Ichigo paused,

'Wait, I never hit him-'

"Amaterasu! (Illuminating Heaven!)"

0-0-0

Everything went blue, and by blue he knew it was water.

Zabuza grimaced- Kisame had them bad. They would drown if they couldn't do anything.

And when you can't move, that doesn't leave to many options.

Kisame grinned as he walked up to the three floating water prison techniques- his own variation of course,

"Nice try, Copy-nin Kakashi," Kisame revealed a black burn on his right arm, a result from Kakashi's Raikiri (Lightning Cutter), "But you underestimate us Suiton (Water Style) users, we _expect _Raiton (Lightning Style) attacks."

The famous Copy-nin winced as he saw where Kisame was going with this,

"And I have the chakra to stand here all day, you will drown." Kisame took Samehada and placed it on his lap as he sat, "So, any last thoughts?"

"Doton: Shinjū Zanshu no Jutsu! (Earth Style: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique!)"

'What th-'

Kisame's eyes widened as he felt himself pulled underground, up to his head at least, and Kakashi Hatake was now in front of him, igniting his arm in the white lightning,

'My last shot,' Kakashi thought as he rushed the man, 'If this doesn't do it, we die,'

He thrust his arm forward,

"Raikiri! (Lightning Cutter!)"

Kakashi slammed his hand into the head of the man below him-

He had hit him!

-Only to turn into a puddle of water

'NO!'

"I live with a _real_ sharingan user every day,"

Kakashi suddenly felt an incoming from the side, getting hit with a great force-

Samehada,

Zabuza and Haku watched in horror as Kakashi spun with the blow- a trail of blood following him through the air as he hit the ground.

'Damn it!' Zabuza cursed as he tried to hold his breath under the pressure of the water, 'We'll die, all of us-'

"Heh, lookie here,"

Kisame walked up to the two, who were still trapped in the floating spheres of water,

"You sure don't look so well Zabuza," Kisame grinned as he saw the two struggle for breath, "But I wonder what would happen if you lost your partner here,"

Zabuza's eyes widened and he began to cough from within his prison-

Kisame drew back his blade, preparing to slug them-

"Die then," Kisame swung-

"Hyoton: Chikyū no Shimo! (Ice Style: Frost of the Earth!)"

Kisame was surprised as Haku's sphere, the one he hit first, spontaneuously froze- grabbing onto his sword as it continued through its path, breaking Zabuza free of his sphere as they hit him,

"Get off of my sword!" Kisame tried to whack the ice off of his sword, which was continuing to freeze over his prized weapon,

Zabuza grabbed his sword from where he had dropped it from being trapped in the sphere and ran at the man, seizing the opportunity to attack him without losing chakra,

"You think you have the advantage, but you don't!" Kisame laughed as Zabuza slammed his blade against Kisame's and realized what he meant,

He cracked off some of the ice,

"The only person you're helping is me!" Kisame laughed as he continued to use Zabuza's offense to his gain, "Keep going you fool!"

0-0-0

Calm and prepared.

Rukia knew Gato would not settle for losing Zabuza's services so easily- he was a man with money. Loads. If anything that Haku told them was not factual she still would have come here just in case,

Gato's mansion was huge, just from the outside, and she only wondered what type of royalty was on the inside,

And considering the situation of the people around her, it was sickening. Not that he prospered, but it was his literal, twisted intention to deprive them of prosperity.

She hadn't moved the whole while in the brush surrounding the place; it had been a few hours maybe? Their guard was pathetic.

She knew something was fishy about this whole mess- not Kisame, not the main source of the people's food, but Gato was strangely quiet during all of this.

Why though-

Movement!

Her eyes darted to the source of the movement- a hooded man had walked up to the mansion,

"Open up!"

0-0-0

Ichigo thought fighting someone that could beat his sensei-figure, Kakashi, and holding the winning hand, was unusual enough,

But when you see a lake spontaneously combust into black flames, well, that just doesn't happen.

And when they _spread_ over the water instead of _dying_, you have a big issue.

He could quickly escape with a good Shunpo (Flash Step) if he wanted, but he knew he couldn't just leave this flame going; Smoky the bear taught him as much.

But how the hell do you put out a flame that's burning _water_!

'If this hits the mainland, the island is toast,' Ichigo grit his teeth as he came to the conclusion, 'This is going to be a long, long day,'

Ichigo used his immense speed to get to the shore, where he looked at the flame and prepared his strike;

"Getsuga Tenshō! (Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer!)"

Ichigo's blast hit the water where the flames resided and it disrupted them, causing him to smirk,

"Getsuga Tenshō! (Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer!)"

0-0-0

The situation with Kisame was just getting worse; Haku had gone to try wake up Kakashi,

He was out cold.

Worse, his chakra was very low, he had multiple open-wounds on his shoulder, and Zabuza was in no condition to beat Kisame on his own.

Unless they got back-up, they would all die.

"Zabuza, you are not on my level,"

Ice clashed against steel in a loud clash of weaponry,

"Oh yeah?" Zabuza growled as he felt some of his chakra leave him again, "Then prove it, so far we've been even one-on-one,"

"And when your friends come I just knock you all down like bowling pins," Kisame laughed as Zabuza grit his teeth and Kisame took his chance- charging forward while the blades were locked,

Zabuza forced every movement of his body towards his blade in hopes of holding off the fish-man in time to receive back-up, for Kakashi to wake up, for Haku to do something-

Kisame's charge ended when Zabuza was slammed against the wall of a shed- causing it to crack and his back to complain of his pain,

"You want me to show you why I am stronger than you?" Kisame narrowed his eyes, "Then I will show you,"

Zabuza grimaced as Kisame, with a flick of his wrist and his might blade, disarmed him wholly.

Kubikiribōchō went flying through the air, catching the attention of Haku- who was running towards him,

'Is this it?' Zabuza's eyes were wide as Kisame pulled him up by the throat, drawing back his sword,

"I say my sword doesn't slice, but shaves," His grin became evil, "But today, I will make an exception,"

Pain.

Pain shot through Zabuza's system as he felt his chest explode- his vitals, his spinal cord, everything was demolished by the thrust of Kisame's sword,

Then it all started to go black,

"ZABUZA-DONO!"

'Haku?' Zabuza's last thoughts and visions were of his daughter in all but blood was rushing up towards them- anger in her eyes showing in her tears,

'I-' Everything faded, 'I'm sorry, for everything…'

0-0-0

"NO!"

Kisame cackled and backed away, allowing the girl to fall on her knees in front of the dead man, making her the only conscious survivor,

Then he heard his sword moan in pain,

'Wait, what th-' Kisame looked at his sword and found out he had made a mistake,

He had pierced Zabuza's liver, and the contents of it were now burning Samehada alive.

Bad.

'Damn you Zabuza, causing me trouble even in the afterlife-'

"Makyō Hyōshō! (Demonic Mirroring Ice Crystals!)"

Kisame looked around and saw himself surrounded on all sides by ice mirrors with the same girl in each,

He paid no mind,

"I need to clean off Samehada," He looked down at his sword- some ice remained, but the acid close to Samehada's mouth was dangerously close,

Too close,

"Move."

"You will pay for killing him!" Haku screamed, "Sensatsu Suishō! (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death!)"

"I thought you tried this before," Kisame swung Samehada to his backside and lifted his arms towards the sky, "You can't _touch_ me!"

Haku was shocked as Kisame let out an insane burst of chakra- shattering the mirrors and blowing away the needles of water she had formed,

She fell to the ground and Kisame held her in place with his foot,

"Now will you shut up and die?"

Kisame lifted Samehada over the girls head, not taking the chance of getting the liver liquids on Samehada,

He swung-

Interecepted-

And knocked back-

Kubikiribōchō?

Kisame stumbled back as he realized what had happened, but the shock of it put him off guard,

Kakashi was standing in his path, wielding the dead Zabuza's blade,

"Kisame," Kakashi panted as he stood, still low on chakra, "You will rot in hell when this is over,"

"Oh really?"

Kisame took a step forward- but Kakashi was already there!

He intercepted the blow only to hold off another, and another-

He was on defensive?

Kakashi then swung out long-range at him as Kisame tried to distance them,

Then he realized why he was on the defense,

That was _his_ style Kakashi was using- his blasted eyes copied his style?

No, it was more than that-

CLANG!

Kisame rolled away and brought up his sword to defend against Kakashi, who had jumped and was bringing the blade down hard,

It looked so similar to that kid he fought earlier,

Wait, the kid?

Kisame blocked the blow and turned his blade, knocking it aside as he scraped Samehada against Kakashi's arm, causing the dried scabs to go away- replaced with new blood,

He hadn't given the Copy-nin as much credit as his name deserved, he anticipated fighting Kisame with one of the large blades at one point. He was prepared,

But not nourished enough.

Kisame prepared to back away from Kakashi, but he had done the same,

Kisame looked interested- Kakashi was going to use a jutsu?

"Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuiga no Jutsu! (Earth Style: Summoning: Tracking Fang Technique!)"

'Earth style summoning?' Kisame's thoughts were put on halt as he suddenly felt something biting him,

Multiple bites,

He looked at himself and found himself surrounded by ninken,

'What is he trying to-' Kisame looked and saw Kakshi running at him with the blade, 'Oh, that,'

"Kisame," Kakashi slung the blade over his shoulder,

Swung it forward,

Hit flesh,

Poured blood,

Sent his head flying,

"Rot in hell!"

Kakashi panted as he looked at the body infront of him, the blood pouring from his neck where he had decapitated him,

He stuck the blade in the ground and walked over to the body, dismissing the ninken as the last of his chakra faded, taking the man's blade in his hands,

'Samehada, one of the Seven Swords of the Mist,' Kakashi looked at the blade and wondered if he should return it or bring it home as a souvenir,

Until Kisame's head emerged from it-

"FOOL!"

Kakashi was to shocked and tired to respond in time as Kisame completely emerged from his sword, lashing out with a fist that sent him flying, sending him next to where Haku was trying to stand,

"You thought you could kill me so easily?" Kisame motioned to the body of himself behind him, which was revealed to be a combination of a genjutsu and a Mizu Bunshin (Water Clone),

'I was… careless?' Kakashi pondered as Kisame closed in on them, both of them too weak to fight back,

'Damn it Minato, Obito, I'm sorry,'

0-0-0

Light?

Zabuza's mind was boggled, wasn't he dead? He was supposed to be burning in hell wasn't he?

But he saw a great light- not a flaming light, but a holy light. Now he stood on a floor divided evenly where he stood between black and white, on the black side he saw a tunnel, reaching far into the distance, but on the white side,

'K-' Zabuza failed to speak as he saw a grown woman sitting in front of him, crying,

'Kami-sama?'

"I…" The woman he presumed was Kami, had tears trailing down both cheeks-

She was pretty by the way, she wore a beautiful red kimono with gold lacings similar to rose patterns, and long, flowing red hair, and golden-amber eyes,

"That man is going to kill everyone on your side down there," Kami sniffled, "You daughter, Haku, is someone I hold dear to my heart- but she is going to die!"

The woman continued to cry and Zabuza stood still in shock, wondering what he could do to help this person-

But his feet couldn't move.

And tears began to trail down his own eyes,

"If you love my daughter then please," Zabuza pleaded, "Save her!"

Kami sniffled, "I can't act so blatantly as you say- if I did, your world would tear by the seams,"

"Anything!" Kami was surprised as she saw the mass murderer, Demon of the Bloody Mist, the man who had sent millions to their deaths, standing there,

Crying like a desperate child,

"Please, I'll do anything!" Zabuza's tears flowed, "Put me in the deepest pits of hell for all I care, but please, save her…"

Kami seemed astonished by his words as Zabuza's tears continued,

"Zabuza Momoichi, you said you would do _anything_?"

Zabuza stopped for a moment and sniffled, "Y-yes, anything,"

Kami smiled, "Then I hereby sentence you, Zabuza Momoichi, to a life-long sentence of guiding souls to the place called Soul Society,"

Zabuza stopped crying completely as he heard the booming voice of the woman in front of him,

"And in the process I make you the first of the forces that will hold the balance between the dead and living, the first Shinigami,"

Zabuza's eyes widened as he was taken up into the air and a magical, light energy flowed around him, changing him into a black robe similar to what Ichigo and Rukia had worn,

"As your first assignment, you are to bring me the soul of the man known as Kisame Hoshigaki,"

Kami smirked as Zabuza noticed the katana at his waist,

"Dissmissed!"

0-0-0

Samehada was hoisted on Kisame's shoulder as he pinned down the fallen Kakashi with one of his feet, holding a squirming Haku by the throat with his other hand,

"Heh, it's over," Kisame looked the girl in the eye with an unworldly grin, mocking her as he grasped her throat, "Any last words?"

"KISAME!"

Kisame looked to the side to see something that scared him to death,

'Z-Zabuza?'

The man was standing in front of him clear as day, now wearing a black cloak- like the one the midget wore when she came to the rescue that day, but with a cut down the middle of the robe that allowed his legs more freedom, and short sleeves that flowed in the wind.

"Heh," Kisame tried to pass off the anomaly, "Now I get the honor of killing you twice? Facina-"

Pain.

Kisame looked down at the pain in his gut and looked back up, Zabuza was there,

He had impaled him?

Now the man had his free hand holding his face,

"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man!" Zabuza began chanting with his deep, angry voice, "Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws,"

Kisame struggled to move the hand of the man, but he was strong- much stronger than he had anticipated-

"Hadō #33. Sōkatsui! (Demon Way #33: Blue Fire, Crash Down!)"

Kisame's world went blank as a blast of blue wiped him from the mortal plane, leaving Zabuza with a smirk,

'I think I'll like this job,'

0-0-0

"Hold on, we're almost there," Kon, as Ichigo, with both Naruto and Sakura over his shoulders, was leading Sakura through the forest, back to Tazuna's house,

"Now you can become multiple personalities and persons?"

A man in a black cloak and red clouds, the one he had seen before with the real Ichigo, stepped in front of their path, and for some reason he had a dried blood tear going down his face,

'Bad,' Kon was prepared to do three things, talk, run, or fight,

And before he got a chance to do any of them, he was interrupted,

"Itachi," Kon and Sakura looked up to see a large, venus-flytrap like plant stick out from the tree next to Itachi with a human head inside,

Divided in two by black and white,

In the same robe as Itachi,

"Leader-sama wants you-"

"**-to live, fool.**"

Itachi seemed stunned by their outright insult to his state, but he consented,

"Kisame is-"

"**-dead.**"

Itachi's eyes widened as he heard the words, and Kon grinned from Ichigo's face as he heard the news. They had won!

"Very well then," Itachi gave one last look at Ichigo and Sakura before turning and leaving, "I shall go,"

"The child is-"

"**-of no consequence.**"

The talking plant and the famous Uchiha vanished- leaving Kon and Sakura wondering what was going on,

"Kon?"

Rukia jumped down from the trees and looked at the group, then turned to Sakura,

"What you saw here, meaning anything related to Ichigo over here," she pointed at him, "Or those men in the robes, is officially an S-rank secret. Nothing happened here, understood?"

Sakura nodded dumbly as they continued towards Tazuna's house. It had been a weird day in general, one more question wasn't that bad right?

"Where were you Rukia?" Kon asked as they walked, "Was Gato up to something?"

"'Was' is the correct term to use Kon," Rukia walked in front of them and pointed to smoke rising in the distance,

In the direction Gato's mansion was,

"He wasn't just on our hit list," Rukia said, "Someone else beat us to it,"

"You mean-"

"Yes," Rukia replied, "May Gato rest in peace- and by peace I mean rotting eternally in hell,"

Kon and Sakura shivered as they walked up to the house and entered,

It had been a long, _long_ day.

**X=X=X**

**Cut!**

**Sorry if it was kind of rough, but did you really think that I would just let an awesome character like Zabuza go to waste? This was my plan from the beginning! Who liked it? I tried to make the chapter longer since I owe you guys (the people that like this) a lot for being patient while I struck a gold mine in my other fic, and started a new one. Chunin Exams are next so hold on to your seat belts!**

**Couple of important notes to this chapter;**

**-Kisame didn't wear the cloak, but Itachi did, Zetsu did, what does this mean? :O I left a trail of breadcrumbs to those who can figure out what this suggests, there has been a big thing change in the Shinobi world.**

**-Ichigo is immune to Genjutsu! :O Ichigo v.s. Itachi; winner is Ichigo! But seriously, after using three eye-bleeding techniques in a row, you would be pretty tired. Then going to fight a guy with a huge blade like Ichigo, that suddenly trades size for speed, you think that trying to just complete the mission wouldn't be a good idea? Besides, I like Itachi, I don't want him to die yet. He's too awesome!**

**-Haku, Kakashi, and Zabuza v.s. Kisame; Kisame loses! Zabuza makes a stunning come back from the dead! The whole Zabuza-Shinigami thing was too awesome to deny, it was a must. Kisame was a juggernaut the whole time, but if you saw a man you just killed grab your face what would you do? Really though you just killed the guy, and now he comes up at you like nothing happened…**

**-Zabuza is the **_**first**_** Shinigami? Kami intervenes (like a boss) what does this mean for the Kurosaki crew?**

**-Gato is dead, by whom? Who else was after the fat man? Why?**

**-Should Rukia have intervened? Yes. Why not? Because of events not shown to your eyes, and it made the fight epic! But really though, the reason resides with the fat man.**

**Love you guys! Hope you enjoyed, have a Merr-y Jan-u-ary!**

**~Crunch! (Random Cookies) :D**


	8. Ch8: Say Your Prayers

**To be simple I'm going to put a generic disclaimer here: If I owned Naruto, Bleach, or anything that earned me money, I would try to introduce too many unique ideas and have that position taken away from me, so the only thing I own is the plot and a few OC's**

**This will be a setup chapter; questions are answered and more are put in there place!**

**Demons/Summoning/Powerful People (like me :P)**

_Flashback/EMPHASIS_

Jutsu/Kido/Techniques

Ch8: Say Your Prayers

The raging blue light faded, allowing the scraps of the now blood-soaked cloak of Kisame to float gently to the ground,

'T-that power, those garbs,' Kakashi looked up at Zabuza, whose hand was still in the air where Kisame had formerly been, blood and shreds of the dead man's coat lying on the ground around him, Samehada lying at his feet, 'Is he like Ichigo and Rukia?'

Zabuza turned towards them, placing Samehada on his back and raising an eyebrow, "What's wrong?" Zabuza asked, looking down at the two shocked allies of his, "Never seen a dead man walk?"

"Z-Zabuza-dono!" Haku jumped and embraced him, letting her tears roll down her face, "B-but how?"

"It's probably a long story," Zabuza hugged Haku back, "But I'm just glad you're safe,"

Kakashi's sharingan eye was still active from the fight, and upon a brief observation of Zabuza he knew it immediately, 'He _is_ a shinigami,'

Kakashi sat up and leaned against the wall of the bridge and watched as Zabuza and Haku just cried,

"No hurry or anything, but I think I'm about to bleed to death here…"

"Haha," Zabuza chuckled, releasing Haku and walking over to the downed Kakashi, kneeling down and ripping some of his robe to seal off the leaking blood, "Must suck for you; I haven't felt better in ages,"

"What happened though," Kakashi asked as Zabuza lifted him over his shoulder, "Where is Kisame?"

Zabuza shivered,

"I'd rather not talk about it…"

0-0-0

'L-light?'

Kisame tried to move his arms, but only to realize that they were paralyzed.

Confused, he looked down, finding himself standing on the borderline of white and black. Glancing to the black part of the room he saw a light in the distance,

"Kisame Hoshigaki,"

Hearing his name he looked over to the white side of the room, seeing a woman in a red kimono sitting on a pure gold throne, tapping her fingers with an impatient look on her fingers,

"Eh?" Kisame looked at the woman, "Who the hell are you?"

"Your maker," Kami narrowed her eyes, "And let me tell you, I am not pleased."

Kisame shuddered as he felt the atmosphere itself turn into pure killer intent- hitting his lungs and his throat with pure pain, causing him to fall on his knees and scream a phantom scream in pain and fear,

"Funny you should mention hell though," Kami grinned evilly, creating a ball of fire in one of her hands, "That's where you're headed anyway,"

Kisame's eyes bulged as the fireball expanded while hurtling towards him- completely enveloping him with pain worse than the killer intent he had felt before,

He closed his eyes as the pain enveloped him and doubled- then tripled- he was _beyond_ numb,

His eyes were forced open as he screamed again-

Noticing a lone worm on his cheek,

His eyes widened in fear as the worm lifted its head,

'O-Oh god-'

He screamed as the worm lunged- plunging all the way into his left eye as it began to eat him alive,

Kami chuckled lightly as she let the fireball that served as the portal die down, leaving herself alone in the neatly divided room, taking a cup of tea and sipping it,

'Good job Zabuza-chan,' Kami snapped and the tea cup dispersed, 'Now, will you remember your sentence of eternal servanthood?'

0-0-0

"Oh my…" Tazuna looked at the laid out forms of Sasuke and Naruto, both untouched physically and yet, "What happened to them?"

"They got attacked by Kisame's partner," Ichigo replied, having regained control of his body before anyone could notice the difference, storing Kon back in his stuffed body, "I don't know how dangerous the attack itself was, but they haven't moved since I go there,"

"What was that explosion we heard though?" Tazuna asked, "Was that the man that attacked these two?"

"It depends on which one you're talking about,"

"What?" Tazuna looked disheveled, "Two explosions?"

"The larger one was from the man attacking these two," Rukia crossed her arms, "The second was Gato's,"

"Gato destroyed something?"

"Not Gato's explosion," Rukia lowered her head, "That explosion _was_ Gato. He's dead."

"…" Tazuna's face froze, shocked at the news, "W-what happened?"

"Someone walked up to Gato's mansion, manhandled the guards, went inside and blew the place sky-high," Rukia said, pausing suddenly, "Tazuna-san, could we have a moment?"

"Don't mind me," Tazuna left the room, leaving Rukia and Ichigo,

"So…" Ichigo asked, "What's this about?"

0-0-0

_Movement!_

_Her eyes darted to the source of the movement- a hooded man had walked up to the mansion,_

"_Open up!"_

_The door rattled as the man banged on it repeatedly, finally getting the attention of one of the guards, who came rushing towards him,_

"_Get away from there-"_

"_Is Gato home?"_

"_That is none of your business," two guards came on the other side of the man, gaining his attention, "Get away from the door,"_

"_Why the hell should I?" The man threw back his hood- revealing a man with grey hair kept in a pony-tail with large, circular glasses that he casually pushed up his nose, "If you don't let me in you'll die."_

"_That's absu-"_

_In a fluid motion the cloaked man had extended and retracted his arm, leaving a large hole in the dead guard's head where the kunai had lodged itself,_

"_Is it so hard?" the man brought the kunai to his lips and licked it, tasting the blood, scaring the remaining guards who did nothing, "I'll be going in now-"_

"_N-No!"_

_The man paused in his procession as he heard the guard speak up and turned to face him,_

"_I-" The guard stuttered madly, "I-I'm not afraid of you!"_

_CLUNK!_

_The guard was cut off as a kunai flew through his neck and into the tree behind him, severing his head from his shoulders as the flesh tore,_

_The remaining guard just fell to his knees in fear as the man continued to the door,_

"_Be glad I let you live,"_

_Without another word the door burst open as the man went inside,_

'_What on earth,' Rukia was shocked as she saw the procession below take place, 'Grey hair in a ponytail, big glasses… That sounds like the traitor Ichigo fought before; when Naruto failed the genin exam-'_

_BOOM!_

_Rukia shut her eyes as the mansion exploded, causing a flash of brilliant light,_

_She opened her eyes to see what had happened-_

_Only to see that same man an inch from her face,_

"_Make sure to give my regards to Ichigo,"_

_Rukia blinked- only to see him no more,_

'_T-the hell!' Rukia waited, sensing nothing she looked back at where the mansion had been, noticing the black scorch on the ground and the smoke still rising, the remains in ruins,_

'_What the hell just happened?'_

0-0-0

"You saw Kabuto? Here?" Ichigo seemed very distressed, "Not only that but he snuck up on you? That's… I mean… _Kakashi_ can't do that!"

"It happened," Rukia replied, "I saw his glasses gleam, it wasn't an illusion."

"So he must have met up with Orochimaru then," Ichigo said, clenching his fists, "I thought for sure the snake wouldn't let him live, old man said he doesn't do it too often,"

"That's not all I wanted to say," Rukia said, looking him in the eye, "Did Itachi say the name of the attack he used on them?"

"Tsukuyomi (Moon Reader)," Ichigo replied, seeing Rukia frown he asked, "What's wrong?"

"That isn't an ordinary genjutsu he used on Naruto and Sasuke," Rukia replied, "I need to talk to Kakashi next,"

Ichigo suddenly remembered the absence of their comrades, "Speaking of that where are the others?"

"Tazuna!" Tsunami's voice, along with the sound of the door's being burst open rang clearly; very disturbed, "Kakashi-san needs a mat!"

"Just Kakashi?" Ichigo asked as he ran downstairs, 'Did Zabuza get out unscathed or something?'

As Ichigo and Rukia reached the bottom of the stairwell, they met Tsunami, who was wide-eyed and shocked,

"N-no," Tsunami said,

Sakura, who was standing beside her, spoke up, "He wasn't injured at all!"

Ichigo and Rukia exchanged glances and ran past her, walking out the door to see-

"Z-Zabuza!"

Zabuza was standing outside the house in the garb of a shinigami, but with large short sleeves and a cut that went down the middle of the garb, and underneath he wore a pair of white pants,

"What the hell?" Rukia walked up to him and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him to her eye level (down), "You didn't die… did you?"

"He doesn't look dead at all Rukia," Sakura said, "But he does look a lot like-"

"Remember what I said," Rukia held up her hand, reminding Sakura of the necessity of secrecy then sighed, "Damn it. This is so complicated…"

"How did you even-" Ichigo tried to motion to Zabuza in general… but didn't seem to grasp what he wanted to say, "Never mind, can we have a moment?"

"Who?"

"I'm sorry Tazuna, Haku, Sakura," Rukia interjected, "It's nothing personal, but this is something that has to be kept between the four of us,"

Tazuna nodded and the three mentioned allowed the group to walk upstairs, past him, and back into the room with the unconscious Naruto and Sasuke.

Zabuza took Samehada and dropped it to the floor, sitting beside it,

Kakashi was laid on one of the open mats on the floor and got himself comfortable- he was going to be there a while,

Ichigo leaned against one of the walls and put his hands in his pockets,

Rukia shut the door and made a handseal, "Fuka Tsukeru; Boon! (Seal Placement Method; Soundproof!)"

As she said the words kanji appeared in the center of the floor, ceiling, and each wall,

"Zabuza," Rukia asked, very concerned, "How did you become a shinigami?"

"A gift from Kami,"

Silence,

"No, I'm serious," Zabuza said, "That bastard Kisame killed me, and then Kami sentenced me to guide souls to Soul Society for eternity as the first shinigami,"

"First?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow, "Rukia is over 200 years old and she-"

BAM~!

Ichigo's head smashed into the ground as Rukia retracted her hand, causing the Kakashi and Zabuza to shiver,

"No one heard that," Rukia said calmly, "All that aside, that would explain why we couldn't preform Konso (Soul Burial) and I couldn't go back to Soul Society; it wasn't created yet."

"'Yet'?" Zabuza asked, catching on the use of past tense, "What do you mean by that?"

Rukia paused and sighed, "Either Ichigo, his sisters and I are from another time, or another dimension,"

"… You're kidding right?" Zabuza chuckled, but seeing that neither Rukia nor Ichigo flinched he stopped, "Well, maybe that would explain why I'm the first shinigami when you two obviously were already…"

"I don't really want to let too many people know this," Ichigo said, "But considering what happened to you, Zabuza, directly concerns u. Maybe it could help us get back home.

"I'll just start from the beginning,"

0-0-0

"_We're going to protect Karakura town."_

_Isshin Kurosaki, Ichigo's father, motioned towards the Senakaimon in front of them; a portal that connected the Soul Society with the human world._

_Soul Society was in ruins; Aizen Sosuke, traitor of the thirteen guards of Soul Society, had brought his army and destroyed their forces, manhandled their strongest members, and utterly annihilated them._

_They might be the only ones left that could stop him._

_Ichigo nodded and his father jumped into the portal, and Ichigo followed, reaching his hand towards the portal-_

_It changed color as he touched it, from black to purple, but he paid it no mind and jumped in-_

_Landing face-first in the middle of nowhere?_

'_What the hell?' Ichigo stood up and dusted himself off, and upon looking around, finding himself in an autumn-red forest, dark brown trees and crimson-orange leaves all around him, 'It's spring back home, not fall, what the heck is this?'_

_Ichigo suddenly felt his power fade- looking down he saw himself materialize into his human form,_

'_This is bad-' _

_"Ichi-nii?"_

_Yuzu walked out from behind one of the trees and ran towards him, surprising him further, "What- What just happened to us? Where are we?"_

_He sighed deeply, observing the wilderness around them. He may have been busy as a substitute shinigami, but he still excelled in his high school classes, and in none of his books did he recognize this place- this wilderness was weird. They could be in Africa, Middle Asia or even North America! He had no clue, "Yuzu... I have no idea."_

"_Ichigo?"_

_The two siblings were joined by a battered Rukia and a baffled Karin, who came from opposite directions towards him,_

"_What happened?"_

"_I don't know!" Ichigo said, unsure of what to say around his two siblings, "Damn it, I took a wrong step and now I'm in some weird forest- how did you all get here?"_

"_I just blinked and I was here," Karin said, the first to speak up of the three, "Is that what happened to you Yuzu?"_

"_Y-yeah," Yuzu replied, "I was making lunch when all of a sudden I was here,"_

"_I don't know how I got here either, along with… this" Rukia motioned to the small pack on her back, and Ichigo noticed she was in her Gigai, "But this isn't Karakura Town. This probably isn't even Japan."_

"_How is that possible!" Karin shouted, "We just dropped out of life into this weird place- like a horrible science-fiction novel or something?"_

"_Calm down Karin," Ichigo grabbed his sister's shoulder, "We need to be level-headed. Rukia, Can you sense anybody nearby? Maybe that will give us an idea of where we are,"_

_The girl breathed deeply before sitting still and concentrating,_

_They were all interrupted by a loud explosion. Turning to the source of the sound, they all saw billowing smoke rise in the distance and some debris flying, then several trees started falling._

_'Holy-' Ichigo immediately figured out their situation and turned and grabbed his sisters, following Rukia's example he jumped to the side just in time to avoid the blast of wind and energy that blasted straight through where they had stood- knocking down trees and leaving the earth disheveled._

_"Rukia we have to-" Ichigo paused as he saw a man approaching from the direction that the blast went and cursed, "We have to run. Now"_

_The raven-head quickly complied and rushed the two younger siblings out of harm's way as the figure continued advancing,_

_"Is that all you got? Eh, Copy-nin Kakashi?" the orange-haired boy quickly followed his siblings, thanking himself that the man wasn't interested in him, "Stop holding back- You'll never overcome my power even with your stupid sharingan!"_

_Ichigo looked back over his shoulder briefly as he caught up to his siblings and hid amongst the trees on higher ground in hopes of staying out of view, maybe learning some information about this place. The man himself looked horribly beaten up, and whoever this 'Copy-nin' was, he must have been pretty thorough. He felt bad that the guy was asking for more._

_Ichigo hugged his siblings, trying to comfort them- especially Yuzu, who was terrified- he doubted she'd seen people so badly beaten before (outside the clinic anyways, but even that was usually toned-down)._

_The man continued to laugh like a maniac and they heard footsteps, "So are you ready then Kakashi? I will wipe the floor with your Konoha ass! There won't be anything left of you if you keep this up. Activate your sharingan or you will die."_

_"You're an idiot." Everyone paused as they heard the man's opponent speak for himself, "I've been wiping the floor with you for the past five minutes without my sharingan and you think that somehow you'll pull out a win from the bag with it on? Give up. You've lost Tetzu." _

_"Not until you activate that stupid bloodline!" the man clenched his teeth in anger, the man seemed to still be a fair distance away however, and to everyone's dismay-_

_"ACHOO!"_

_"What the-" Rukia looked down at the pack over her back and found a stuffed animal sticking out of one of the pockets,_

_A _very _familiar, _yellow_ stuffed animal._

_And the man noticed the noise too, 'Kon, I will kill you for that...'_

_"Heh... I guess my reputation precedes me, I have people cowering in fear of me-" Even though they never let their eyes off of him, no one saw him move until he had already appeared behind them- taking Yuzu in a headlock and producing a small knife at her throat,_

_"Ichi-nii!" The girl cried out in surprise,_

_"There'll be no more struggling now ya hear," the man produced a knife and held it to her throat, an evil grin on his face,_

_"Yuzu-" Karin moved to attack him but Ichigo held her back, clenching her teeth in the process, "Let her go you sore loser!"_

_"Kakashi!" the man ignored them, shouting towards the clearing, "Activate your sharingan, or the girl dies. You wouldn't like to have this girl die would you?"_

_Ichigo and Rukia held clenched fists as they held Karin back, "Let her go already! She hasn't done anything to you-"_

_"Shut up!" the man lashed out and kicked Karin, sending her into the forest floor with a grunt of pain, _

_"Karin-"_

_"Don't move if you fear her life!" Ichigo stopped mid- turn as he clenched his fists, a tear going down his face. He couldn't turn into his shinigami form fast enough to give him any surprise at this point. He couldn't do anything,_

_"I suggest the same for you, Tetzu." Everyone, including Tetzu, immediately recognized the voice and presence of that man-_

_Kakashi._

_Coming from right behind the man._

_Kakashi, as the man was called, had spiky grey hair, a metal headband covering his right eye and a face mask covering everything except his left eye, which gave an impression that the man was bored. He also wore a green vest with various pockets over a long-sleeve blue shirt that ended in metal-plated gloves, and pants colored in the same blue with a pouch of some sort wrapped around his right leg._

_Overall, he looked pretty untouched, and his own kunai gleamed in the sun as the sweat seemed to glisten off of Tetzu,_

_"Let the girl go, you lose."_

_"I still have a hold on her. Who says I won't do it before you kill me?"_

_"Even without my sharingan I can tell when you're going to move, how you're going to move, and what you're going to try and do. I am much stronger than you Tetzu-"_

_Ichigo dashed forward as the man moved to slit Yuzu's throat, only to find he was too late,_

_A dead man can't kill anyone._

_Ichigo pulled Yuzu into his arms as Kakashi pulled the corpse away from the girl- he had the decency to keep them from the scene. The group of youngsters seemed to gather around the girl and a sense of relief flowed from them, and Kakashi turned to leave;_

_"Wait!"_

_The older man stopped in his steps to turn and find Ichigo standing next to him, "Yes? Did you need something?"_

_"Yes," the orange haired teen looked at the man long and hard. This guy seemed to radiate power; it seemed to roll off him and he looked like he was weary himself. Not from this weakling of course,_

_"First I want to thank you for saving Yuzu from that man," _

_"I just did what was needed to be done," the man shrugged, then suddenly walked past him, "Actually I almost forgot him- I need to clean him up and bring him in,"_

_"Uh..."_

_"Oh don't worry, I'll keep it out of sight," the man hoisted the body over his shoulder in an attempt to hide the blood and mess from the younger children, "Is there something else?"_

_"Yes," He stammered, trying to best ask the question that he needed to ask, "Um... do you… know where we are?"_

_"We're on the border of Fire Country, a mile from the sensitive areas more or less," he seemed to notice the confusion on the boy's face and continued, "Well where were you before you got lost?"_

_"Japan."_

0-0-0

"-And afterwards Kakashi brought us to Konoha, where we took up various jobs and found our new lifestyle," Rukia concluded, "If Kami exists, which according to you she does, then she could help us get home."

"This is really hard to believe…" Zabuza stated, "But what does this mean then, you're actually from the future?"

"Or another dimension," Rukia replied, "We don't know yet, but we assume that Kami might be able to help us home."

"I don't even know how I got there anyway," Zabuza replied, "So how do we plan to talk with Kami?"

"First off, not us; just you," Rukia crossed her arms, "The most logical way to talk to god is simple; start praying,"

"… What?" Kakashi, who had been silent the whole time, raised his visible eyebrow, "I doubt it would be that easy,"

"Worth a shot though," Ichigo also sat down and folded his hands, "If Kami is real, he-"

"She."

"She?"

"She," Zabuza replied, "Weird huh?"

"Whatever," Ichigo shrugged off the oddity, "If Kami does exist, she ought to be concerned about a serious time/space glitch."

"While you try to get in touch with Kami, Ichigo and I will fix up your physical body- you'll need it." Rukia continued, "Kakashi can draw everyone's attention away from this and we can play it off; this hasn't been a normal day for this town at all."

"You don't seemed worried about Naruto and Sasuke," Kakashi commented, "I guess you have a plan for that as well?"

"Itachi used Tsukuyomi (Moon Reader) on them,"

"He what?" Kakashi turned back to his two genin, "Well, that explains why they're out so cold,"

"There is only one person that could heal this," Rukia said, "And after I get Zabuza's… corpse back here, I'm going after her."

"You can't be serious," Kakashi removed his hitae-ate, allowing him to look her in the eye, "Ok, it's you,"

"Doubt my ability Kakashi?" Rukia asked, "Funny, since I haven't lost any bets you and Guy made about me learning any of your jutsu yet,"

"You don't know where to look,"

"When I get back Zabuza can tell me what he knows," Rukia smiled, "After all, we have Kami on our side,"

'I guess that's my cue,' Zabuza thought as Rukia turned and grabbed Ichigo, disappearing in a Shunshin (Body Flicker Technique), 'Well then, how to start…'

'Dear Kami,'

0-0-0

"Aw… so sweet,"

Zabuza opened his eyes as he heard the familiar sweet voice, turning around he saw Kami sitting on her throne again, looking down he sighed in relief, standing fully in the white section of the room,

"Now what do you want," Kami asked, "You're here for a reason,"

"Two of my younger allies are in bad condition," Zabuza began, "And we were hoping that you could-"

"Magically cure them of everything? No." Kami's sarcasm died off on the last note, "This is why I didn't just swoop in and save Haku; I don't, and can't interfere directly."

"We were hoping you could lead us to someone who could heal them," Zabuza asked, "And Rukia believes that there is only one person capable of that,"

"You want to find Tsunade?" Kami asked, "Hm… You have my attention; because my plans have been slightly altered thanks to Akatsuki… I might need to speed up some of these factors…"

"I don't intend to seem knowledgeable about your plans, so I will just ask," Zabuza asked, "What is Akatsuki?"

"The name of the group that Orochimaru, Kisame, Itachi, and Zetsu are members of," Kami stated, "Then again, you haven't met Zetsu yet have you?"

"No…" Zabuza said, "I think there was someone unidentified Rukia met though,"

Suddenly a light bulb went off in his brain,

"I know about your friend's situation already Zabuza," Kami read Zabuza like a book, causing him to raise an eyebrow, "And to answer that question no, I did not contradict myself, and no I cannot send them back where they came from,"

"But why-"

"I will not comment," Kami waved him off, "Be happy I tell you this much; it's not every day someone gets to talk with Kami face-to-face and lives to tell the tale."

Zabuza stopped; after dying and coming back the whole thing kind of felt toned down… But now that he thought about it she was right,

"I have an assignment for you-"

"What about Tsunade?"

Kami let a glare land on Zabuza, "You seem very confident only an hour after trembling at my feet, remember your place,"

"That blonde brat reminds me of Haku," Zabuza said, "Don't tell me you won't save him,"

"Is he about to die? No. Is he my immediate concern?" Kami continued to glare, then smiled when Zabuza did not back down, "Yes. He is."

"He… is?"

"He is the pivoting point of this world; a chosen one," Kami said plainly, "Keep that between us though."

'The blonde kid is the pivot of the world?' Zabuza's head began to spin, 'What is the world coming to…'

"Your assignment is to find and retrieve Tsunade Senju for the sake of Konohagakure no Sato, and allow her to heal Naruto and Sasuke," Kami snapped her fingers, bringing up a map of the elemental nations in front of Zabuza, "Tsunade is currently in the Land of Iron, where she is hiding from those she is in debt to. She will be located somewhere near the border,"

'That isn't too far from the coastline,' Zabuza noted as the map faded, "Wait, could I see it again?"

"It's been installed in your brain for now," Kami smiled, motioning for him to leave, "Hurry, you don't have too much time,"

0-0-0

"Woah…" Zabuza sat up with a grunt, "I will never get used to that-"

He stopped,

'Why do I feel like I just got thrashed?'

Zabuza looked down at himself, realizing he was back in his physical body,

'Dang, I really got banged up,' Zabuza lifted his left arm, which was thoroughly bandaged,

"You're awake," Kakashi commented, who was not sitting too far off from him, "What happened?"

"She's in Iron country," Zabuza said, "Kami says I need to be one of the ones bringing her back; I have a map in my head,"

'So we really do have a god on our side…' Kakshi thought in awe, "Are you feeling good enough to move?"

"No," Zabuza replied, "Not for the travel I'll have to do; I hear it's cold as heck up there,"

"Then we have to get a way for you to leave your gigai," Kakashi stated, Ichigo and Rukia getting him used to the term, "Luckily, we already have such a way,"

"Yo~!"

Zabuza jumped back as he saw the little yellow lion next to Kakashi stand up and wave at him,

"W-WHAT THE HELL!"

'Glad we have those soundproof seals up,' Kakashi let a sweatdrop fall, "Zabuza, meet Kon,"

"A talking stuffed animal?" Zabuza pointed at the plush animal, "How is that going to help me get into my spirit form?"

"Open your mouth Zabuza,"

Zabuza raised an eyebrow,

"What?"

"Open."

"Why?"

"Trust me on this," Kakashi said, Zabuza slowly complying, "Now… Don't. Move."

Before Zabuza could respond Kakashi had grabbed Kon, pointed at him and squeezed him, shooting a small pellet at his open mouth,

He closed his mouth on instinct and began choking, eventually swallowing the odd pill,

"What the hell was tha~"

"~at?"

Zabuza stopped as he noticed something,

He was standing up.

"Got any new Icha-Icha Kakashi?"

Zabuza looked down and saw himself stretch,

"W-What happened?"

"I, Kon, have kicked your soul out of your body and given you freedom," Zabuza- no, Kon smiled,

Zabuza simply stared at himself for a minute,

"Can I kill that thing when I get back?"

"Sorry Zabuza, Rukia reserved that right."

"Damn."

0-0-0

"_Where am I?"_

_Naruto groggily walked along the white dust of the infinitely white, sandy plane._

_The last thing he remembered was Itachi telling him that he lasted through the entire three days of torture, after which he promptly made Naruto go through a series of cellular explosions all over his body as a finale._

_It caused him so much pain all he could do was _think_ about screaming. His mind went numb and he shut down._

_Then he woke up in the middle of this… place._

_At first he was on guard for Itachi again, but it looked nothing like what Itachi had done before- if anything it felt more real than his life in general. It was… odd. He felt like his actual life was the dream now instead of this. Because this was obviously the dream, right?_

_Naruto struggled with self-doubt for several days as he wandered the desert- strangely never growing hungry or thirsty, then again with no sun how could he tell how the time worked?_

_Seeing nothing after walking there for days on end didn't give him anything to help him decide anything- for all he knew up was south and down was east. This new world was opposite of everything he knew. If he was told that the other world, his life so far, was the dream, he might very well believe it._

_It was _that_ real._

_The wind smashed through the flat desert like a battering ram, causing Naruto's large grey cloak to rustle madly in its wake. He didn't remember ever owning a grey cloak that covered him completely back home, or a grey cloak at all for that matter, but when he woke up it was the only thing covering the black, tattered shirt and pants, which kept him out of the cold wind and kept the sand off of his skin. Having been here days on end he was eternally thankful for it._

_Sometimes he would find trees- well, they weren't trees. They were more like rocks. They didn't even feel like trees, unless this was a real tree and the trees he thought were trees weren't trees,_

_At one point he freaked out and used __Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)__ to send clones everywhere to try and find somewhere that would resemble civilization; no success. _

_It was maddening!_

_His eyes darted to the left-_

_The sand had shifted just as his eyes reached the spot,_

_But not by the wind._

_Naruto looked around himself and saw nothing,_

'_It must be underground-'_

_RUM~BLE!_

_The tremor reached Naruto in time for him to roll back- getting out of the way just as a black hand skewered through the sand where he had been,_

'_What the hell?'_

_The hand smashed into the ground next to him and he jumped aside, missing him,_

_That wasn't it's intent apparently, as it pushed against the sand,_

_Naruto's eyes widened as the entire creature began to emerge- first a shoulder, then another arm,_

_The black arms began shaking the sandy terrain and Naruto backed up, preparing for anything that might come from that sand,_

_Then the head emerged,_

_Naruto was silenced as a large, six story tall black monster appeared with a blank white mask with a long, sharp nose and two deep eyeholes,_

"_Holy shit…"_

X=X=X

Omake! The Trek with Kakashi; Day 1

"Where are we going nii-san?"

"We're going to Konoha Yuzu," Ichigo smiled to his younger sister and ruffled her hair, they had just set off on the road a little while ago, and Kakashi said that it shouldn't take more than a few days to reach Konoha on foot, "It's a city with lots of strong people like Kakashi here, and he says we can find a job there."

"What about home? Will we ever go back?" Ichigo tensed at the question his sister threw at him, it was too early for that. Thinking fast, he tried to give her the best answer he could, "I don't know Yuzu, but we won't be for some time."

He saw her start to look down and immediately moved to comfort her, "Don't worry Yuzu, we still have each other right?"

0-0-0

Karin had seemingly dealt with the new environment rather quickly and was more interested in their company, leaving Yuzu to walk with their brother, "Rukia, right?"

"Uh... yeah..." the girl felt that Ichigo's younger sister was keen.

A little _too_ keen,

"What were you doing last night when you knocked on our door?"

"I was... going to ask Ichigo about some homework" she let out a sigh of relief, "But that isn't important now is it?"

'She's hiding something,' but the younger girl let it slide, moving on to another question, "Do you know where he was the last few days though? He was out pretty late,"

"No, not really."

'Still hiding something,' "Rukia, are you my brother's girlfriend?"

The girl in question faltered greatly and almost fell, causing Karin to let out a laugh,

"No I'm not his girlfriend Karin," Rukia responded, "Why would you ask that?"

"You seem close to him, and I've never really seen you before," she looked at Rukia hard, "I also happen to know nothing about my brother's love life, and he's been out late every day for the past week..."

In the front of the group, Kakashi sprouted a nosebleed,

"NO!" the girl almost screamed, then lowered her voice when she made sure Ichigo couldn't hear her, and turned to Karin, "That is not true! I didn't- we didn't-"

"But you seem close to him, and I've never seen you before" she looked at Rukia hard, "It's just weird."

"I..." she was completely unprepared for this type of encounter. Weird powers? Sure. Who are you? No problem. Are you my brother's boyfriend?

That was a shocker.

Not that Ichigo wasn't attractive; she just never really thought about it. Especially after coming to this... place. This world was very interesting from what Kakashi-san told them, but they had only experienced a fragment of the world around them. She had other things to worry about than her (non-existent, but she wouldn't dare admit it) love life.

UGH. So troublesome.

0-0-0

"ACHOO!" the entire class paused and turned to look at the source of the sound- Shiikamaru.

'Maybe he has a cold?' the teacher shook his head as he continued to watch his sleeping student, 'But I got to hand it to him, for being so lazy, who would think he found a way to sneeze in his sleep?'

**X=X=X**

**Cut!**

**Land of Waves isn't over? As far as the mission no, but there is some fun to be had while stationing themselves here. The bridge hasn't been built yet and new issues have popped up, what's going on?**

**Couple of important notes to this chapter;**

**-Kisame is gone; Samehada stays. Is Zabuza going to dual wield or something? :/ Idk myself…**

**-A little torture session from a glimpse of hell. This is rated T for safety. I am protected. Hell isn't a fun place anyway.**

**-The past of Ichigo's crew is revealed: a glitch in the Senkaimon? Or maybe it's much more… Is it?**

**-Kabuto kills of Gato **_**and**_** gets the drop on Rukia? Isn't that interesting… Why him anyway?**

**-Kakashi gets a bad-ass moment in the flashback; a scene I wrote up a while ago and re-fancied for this chapter. Meet the origins of the fic!**

**-The bridge to Kami is prayer? So original right? Lolz maybe not but hey, it's 'more than meets the eye.' As a Christian I can tell you there is power in prayer dattebayo!**

**-Kami's plans are being interrupted by Akatsuki, and she decides Tsunade is needed early. Zabuza is going though? Any reason besides the map in his head?**

**-Zabuza get's beaten to the punch; Rukia reserved the right to kill Kon xD**

**-Where is Naruto, and what is he doing there, and why? I will have fun with this… :)**

**-I will have an Omake series on 'The Trek With Kakashi,' and depending on the length, 1-2 days per chapter until they conclude.**

**It was originally going to be a boring explanation chapter and I went off on a tangent, causing the universe to crash about a third into the chapter. That is reserved for a later time. So it took me about… 4-5, 6-7 hours to write this chapter… And I decided to hold off posting it until I wrote up the next chapter; I'm going to try being one chapter ahead of what I post.**

**IMPORTANT NOTICE: ****Idea's for Zabuza's shikai/bankai would be amazing****, because he'll probably need it somewhere in the next arc, and I would like to get an idea myself. ****If you have a suggestion than post it in a review.**_**An actual review is not required, but would be appreciated.**_

**~Crunch! (Random Cookies) :D**


	9. Ch9:The World Revolves Without You

**To be simple I'm going to put a generic disclaimer here: If I owned Naruto, Bleach, or anything that earned me money, I would try to introduce too many unique ideas and have that position taken away from me, so the only thing I own is the plot and a few OC's**

**The Search for Tsunade starts and the rest of the world is not paused in the least! Still building up for the fun parts… and wishing I could get to the dawgone Chunin Exam Arc…**

**Demons/Summoning/Powerful People (like me :P)**

_Flashback/EMPHASIS_

Jutsu/Kido/Techniques

Ch9: The World Revolves Without You

Iron Country, or at least the border, had not been very far away from Wave Country, only a couple hours out; 4-6 total max.

He had set out as soon as he got over Kon residing in his 'gigai,' as it was called. And he missed it as soon as he set foot in the country.

He had never been so cold in his life; before or after.

He shivered, the people of the town they stopped in seemed completely comfortable with it- hell, Kirigakure's climate wasn't so bad before he deflected. It was cold, but mildly.

This was _cold_.

"Stop whining already," Rukia chided him as they walked through the crowd, "Act tough. Wasn't that something you were known for back in Kirigakure?"

"Shut up," Zabuza resisted the urge to grab and rub his arms, "I told you it's cold, I don't have a thick jacket like you,"

"Suck it up," Rukia replied, "Anyway, I think there's a bar close by, maybe a gambling joint a few blocks away."

"What do you propose we do?" Zabuza asked, "She isn't in this town, I can tell. She's still about a few miles away."

"Getting information on who she's running from can get us an idea of where she'll go hide," Rukia replied, and upon seeing a person tossed out of two swinging doors, followed by a beer bottle she sighed,

"I'll take the bar then," Zabuza said, walking towards the building, "Back here in an hour?"

"Follow any leads you get," Rukia nodded, "If you think you found something worth looking into do it. We can't be over cautious about this, we don't have time."

"Alright then," Zabuza turned and walked into the swinging doors, finding himself in the bar,

And finding himself the only person not a Samurai in the whole joint (bartender not included)-

The group of warriors stared at him,

Zabuza pretended to ignore them and walked to the counter,

"I need a shot."

The bar had eventually gone back to normal and Zabuza had had his shot, but he still felt uneasy around the Samurai; he felt a strange killer intent in the air,

"Damn!" One of the Samurai stood up and slapped his hands on the table, Zabuza could tell he had lost in poker, "That was my entry fee you bastards!"

"About that time of year again eh?" The bartender asked, "How many of you are entering this year?"

"Anyone with the guts and the money is entering," one of the samurai said, "And certainly not that stupid-ass,"

Zabuza, not hearing the conversation, stood up and stretched,

Then the bar burst into laughter,

"What's so funny?" Zabuza asked, turning to face the group of Samurai, "If you're laughing at me then I would like to know why- I haven't kicked ass in a whole day."

"You wouldn't last a second against us; let alone the tournament," one of the Samurai commented as he walked up to get a shot, "Especially with no warm clothing,"

"Or armor,"

"And against true swordsmen you wouldn't stand a chance-"

"Poser!"

The bar cracked up again at Zabuza's expense,

He raised an eyebrow, "True swordsmen?"

"Iron Country has always correctly bragged about its great swordsmen," The Samurai stated, "And the tournament we host each year is a testament to that. The winner even gets to face off against Mifune-dono."

"That is interesting," Zabuza asked, suddenly a light bulb went off in his brain, "Is there any gambling based on this tournament?"

The bar burst in laughter,

"One of the largest betting pools in the Elemental Nations,"

"Where does it take place?"

"I bet you would like to know!"

The Samurai's remark caused the room to settle back into its regular chaos, and Zabuza sighed,

'Tsunade will probably be coming to that tournament in order to make enough money and pay off her debts,' Zabuza thought, 'I just need to know where that tournament thing is-'

"Here,"

Zabuza looked up to see the bartender offering him a paper,

A poster about the tournament!

"Take this," The bartender gestured again and Zabuza took the paper gladly,

"Thank you,"

With that he took out a couple spare yen and gave the man a tip before leaving,

'Won't Rukia like this,' he smirked, 'We got her,'

0-0-0

"The bridge is being built faster than expected!"

Tazuna had set about continuing the construction of the bridge as soon as he could, and upon hearing that Gato was dead the entire village began aiding in the effort,

"That's good," Ichigo replied, "We might actually get to walk home instead of taking a boat back,"

Ichigo was the only one who was legitimately able to guard the bridge at this point; with Zabuza and Rukia gone, he was the most qualified of the three abled-bodies left. Even without the glove or Kon, Zabuza had left him Kurikibocho for the duration of his journey with Rukia.

"Either way you aren't paying for anything for the rest of your stay lad," Tazuna smiled brightly, "With Gato gone, and no one antagonizing our progress… We owe you kids so much… Kami has blessed us greatly through you,"

Ichigo merely smiled and let the man back to work; Zabuza had turned his world upside down with his little revelation of the existence of Kami.

If he wasn't currently walking around in the body of a shinigami, having died with three witnesses (one of which is dead) present and a sentient sword as well, he wouldn't have believed that such a being existed.

The ultimate proof though, would be if he could bring Tsunade back to heal Sasuke and Naruto. That would be next to impossible to do without the direct influence of Kami himself-

No, _herself_.

Ichigo moved to the side as two workers came by with a plank of wood on their shoulders, wondering what would happen if Sasuke and Naruto were…

He couldn't think of it.

He had gone and checked for signs of life three times before coming out here; they were alive. But it was so unreal how they were unresponsive to anything.

Imagine if he had been put under that genjutsu; maybe his lack of chakra came with some good aspects as well.

'Itachi Uchiha,' Ichigo thought as he stared at the clear blue sky, 'If they die, I swear I will find and kill you in a way worse than any of your genjutsu,'

0-0-0

"_Tajuu __Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!)__"_

_Naruto grunted as the massive black claw swept down and destroyed his newly created clones, leaving him with only a few left,_

"_Tajuu __Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!)__"_

_Naruto replenished his forces with another brigade and sent them about attacking the strange creature,_

_Only a couple of problems,_

_1. Kunai, shuriken and the like would not pierce the skin._

_2. Physically, he could not seem to actually hurt it on his own._

_3. Nothing he seemed to do worked._

_Memories of constant defeat were flowing through his brain as the giant monster began swatting his clones away like mosquitoes; albeit slowly._

_Nothing was working._

_Heck, nothing was even happening! He was simply making the thing annoyed because of his mass amount of fail._

_He clenched his fists as he got a memory of a clone dying from smacking the thing too hard,_

'_What can I do?' Naruto asked as he thought long and hard, but was brought back to reality by a lack of multiple blonde doppelgangers running around in his place,_

_The monster grinned and moved to smash him,_

"_Tajuu __Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!)__"_

0-0-0

'Rukia said to follow a lead if I got one, and to meet back here in an hour,' Zabuza had been waiting for a good half-hour; he didn't have a watch or anything but he knew it had been a while, 'I wonder… Did she find something?'

He thanked Kami it wasn't snowing, because it was cold enough. He was alright, but he was on the borderline between not-frostbitten and going inside before that changed.

He let out a breath and saw it as it disappeared into the atmosphere, causing him to shiver again.

Thinking of the tournament he went over it in his head; winner obviously received a prize, and they got to duel against Mifune- the head Samurai and the closest thing to a Kage in this country.

And according to the poster the bartender gave him it seemed that it had a limited number of participants; there was an opening free-for-all that kicked out a good number of hopefuls until only a few remained- they would participate.

It also had a note on the bottom that while betting on competitors may earn you more money, because of the entrance round it was very hard to determine who would make it.

"Interested in the tournament I see,"

Zabuza looked up to see a man with black hair that was absent on his 'top' but apparent on the sides and back of his head, and thick black eyebrows approach him. He wore a greenish-grey kimono with pale blue linings, and a large purple scarf that circled his neck, covering his lower face.

It did not hide his cheery mood however,

"Yeah, I'm thinking about going,"

"You look like a foreigner," The man said, "And a Samurai to boot; are you going to participate?"

"I never thought of participating," Zabuza replied, "I'm trying to find someone, and I have reason to think she'll be here-"

"Not participating?" The man raised an eyebrow, "You seem like a good candidate; the ones who don't care to participate usually do the best."

"Is that so…" Zabuza looked at the paper again,

"I strongly suggest that you go and win a couple rounds in that tournament," the man smiled from under his scarf- he could tell from his eyebrows, similar to Kakashi's trademark smile, "Anyway I must be going, I hope to see you there,"

"Sure," Zabuza watched the man walk back to where he came from,

'What the heck was that about?' Zabuza looked back at the paper, 'But oddness aside, the reward is nothing to laugh at- and getting to fight someone like Mifune is nothing to scoff at on a transcript,'

Zabuza stopped where he thought as he felt something hit his nose,

'No,' Zabuza closed his eyes, 'No-no-no, it is not. It's not,'

Daringly Zabuza cracked an eye open and slowly looked towards the sky,

Snow.

'I am not going to let my… soul… catch frostbite,' Zabuza began walking off, 'I hope Rukia doesn't mind if I step in and try to warm myself up- I need to talk to her anyway.'

0-0-0

"Oh my," Tsunami stammered as she walked into the kitchen, "What a nice flower arrangement Haku-san, thank you,"

"It was no trouble," Haku smiled gracefully as she took the compliment, "I enjoy the simple things in life,"

Haku looked back to the flowers as Tsunami went to work in the kitchen,

"Haku,"

Haku looked over to see Sakura walking up to her, having come from the room where her team resided,

"Yes Sakura-san," Haku replied, "May I help you?"

"Can you teach me," Sakura fiddled, "How to… fight,"

Haku seemed startled, causing Sakura to flinch, "I have never taught before, I don't know what you mean by 'to fight.'"

"Yesterday, when Itachi attacked us, we were supposed to be training," Sakura replied, "We were there because we weren't strong enough as a team; and a chain is only strong as its weakest link…"

"You want to be strong?" Haku asked, "Is that what you're asking?"

"Y-yes…" Sakura replied, "I want to be able to do something- to protect my teammates… I can't deal with the fact that I'm the only one of us that isn't in there recovering anymore."

Haku smiled as Sakura clenched her fists, "I can try Sakura-chan, but I have no guarantee that you will be able to really learn anyth-"

"Thank you!"

Haku was cut off as Sakura embraced her, only for the younger girl to back off immediately- abashed,

"I'm… sorry about that…"

"It was no problem," Haku replied, regaining her composure, "Now come with me,"

"Where to?"

"The shore," Haku replied, "You can fight while on the water correct?"

"Yeah," Sakura replied as the two left the house, "Rukia helped us perfect that one this week,"

"Then I have something in mind,"

As the shore came into view Haku went through several hand seals, and Sakura noticed that she only used one hand,

"Sensatsu Suishō! (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death!)"

Sakura's eyes widened as the water in front of the shore rose in the air at Haku's command, having never seen her combat abilities before,

"I can try to teach this to you," Haku said, allowing the needles to fall back into the ocean, "But it takes very precise chakra control, and extreme focus-"

"What were the hand seals?"

Haku paused and repeated the hand seals slowly,

Sakura nodded and walked up to the shoreline, letting herself wade in the water,

"Sensatsu Suishō! (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death!)"

Sakura closed her eyes and focused,

Haku's eye's widened,

"You made one," Sakura opened her eyes as Haku stood in front of her, holding a single water needle in her hand, "That's good progress- your chakra control is amazing,"

"T-thank you," Sakura lost control of the technique as she received the compliment, letting the needle slip into a water droplet on Haku's hand,

"Now, let's try that again,"

0-0-0

It had been a week.

Yuzu swept the kitchen of her second home- Ichiraku, where she had worked for the past year and a half,

Ichigo, Rukia, Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi had been gone for a week. Ino was constantly out on missions with her team, and Yuzu was often working lonely shifts at the small ramen stand.

Karin had stopped by in the afternoon and worked with her, but today they were gone on a mission as well, leaving her with only Teuchi and Ayame.

The Hokage had told them that Ichigo and Rukia would be back soon; that they were with Naruto's team and he would see that they were found. That was good to hear, but that was a few days after they left,

And they still weren't home!

Not only that, but after graduation she seemed to see her friends from the academy less and less; she felt like she was being abandoned because of her choice to stay a civilian- what she planned to be since she was born! She never wanted to be a human soldier!

She knew that wasn't the case, but it was psychologically similar to reverse peer pressure, because she didn't go with the crowd her friends seemed to fade.

Would it always be like this?

With one last sweeping motion she placed the broom against the wall,

'If only there was _something_ to do…'

"Hello?"

She heard the voice and poked her head out of the kitchen,

"Chouji?"

"Hey Yuzu!" Ino said as Yuzu walked out, seeing her friend sitting at the counter, "What's up? Anything interesting going on?"

"Nothing much really…" She said as she saw Shikamaru sitting at the end of the counter dozing, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Asuma-sensei had a date with Kurenai-sensei, so he couldn't take us to the regular place we go to,"

Yuzu shared a knowing smile with Ino over the subject,

"You guys hungry?"

0-0-0

"Another triple 7's!"

The sound of metal tokens hitting the ground was the first thing Zabuza heard as he entered the shady-but-lively joint. He knew the perks of owning such a place, and he knew that someone just got rigged.

Most likely in a futile attempt to gain more money from the people questioning the legitimacy of the colorful slot machines that seemed to be the main attraction of the place, there were other things along the walls that you would normally see around such a place.

'Wonder who the person was-'

CLING-CLANG!

More metal tokens began falling to the ground and he followed the sound,

"That's 3,586 triple sevens in a row!"

"It's impossible!"

"R-Rukia-san is amazing!"

Wait… what?

As he turned he saw a crowd encircling one of the slot machines, mostly consisting of random civilians- no samurai in sight,

"Hey, step aside~coming through!"

Zabuza pushed aside the random fan-club and found it to be true,

There she was.

Standing amid several cans full of the silver tokens,

"Zabuza?"

His eyes removed themselves from the awing sight of the coins and to the speaker, his partner,

"Did you find something?"

"Y-yeah," he said, fighting for his position in front of the crowd, "I know where she'll be in the next few days,"

"Alright then," The chunin took her attention from the slot machine and stood on her toes, trying to see over the crowd, "HEY! I NEED TO CASH THIS IN!"

"R-right away Miss…"

'That's… scary…' Zabuza thought as he saw the man who owned the joint come in and start hauling away the cans, "How much is that?"

"Well," Rukia pulled out a notepad from her vest as the man was about to answer, "Since I only got triple 7's since I got here, and I got exactly 3,587 in a row…"

She began scribbling down one the notepad as the owner started sweating,

Zabuza leaned over her shoulder and looked at the math,

'S-… S-so many 0's…'

"Then you add the bonus for holding the holding the highest amount of triples in a row…"

0-0-0

"Did you hear the news Tsunade-sama?"

"What?"

"About Gato- the man with the monopoly on Wave," Shizune, a woman with short black hair and black eyes spoke. She wore a long dark blue-black kimono with a white trim held closed by a white obi, and her feet were covered by open-toed sandals with low heels, "He was assassinated!"

"Really?" Tsunade, a was woman with short blonde hair that went along either side of her face in two bangs, and continued with two pony tails that went below her shoulders. She wore a revealing grey kimino blouse held closed by a blue robe that matched her blue pants, open-toed high-heel sandals and a green jacket with the kanji for 'Gamble' written on the back,

"Isn't it horrible?" Shizune was reading one of the newspapers that had been delivered to their room; the Land of Iron must have a widespread contact base if they could get this information that occurred only hours ago,

"It's great!" Tsunade smiled, "That's one big debt I don't have to repay; phew."

"Tsunade-sama!"

"I'm just kidding," Tsunade waved off Shizune's shock at her reaction, "But for real, I did owe him a good chunk of cash. With him gone we won't owe him anything,"

Shizune narrowed her eyes, "You said we paid off that debt!"

Pause,

"W-well then," Tsunade let a sweatdrop fall, "Perhaps… we miscommunicated?"

"Who else are we in debt to?" Shizune saw Tsunade's eyes dart towards their suitcase, which contained the money they needed and grabbed it before the Sannin could,

"Oh we're fine!" Tsunade said, "I cleared up everything from the last country we were in-"

"Tsunade…" Shizune's eyes widened as she opened the case,

"Look I can explain!" Tsunade tried to get Shizune's mind off the bills in front of her, "There's a tournament this week in the next town; we can win big-"

"Tsunade…" Shizune repeated, "We have no money. We are, apparently, in debt to Samurai across the nation. And going to a tournament consisting mainly of Samurai is going to help us because…?"

"I can pay them off," Tsunade replied, "That's why."

Shizune stared at her uncle's lover and sighed, "Fine."

Tsunade smirked,

"But we still have no money to get a room for when we get to that tournament; let alone snow shoes, or a jacket even!"

"I got that covered," Tsunade replied, only for Shizune to raise an eyebrow, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing,"

Shizune rolled her eyes,

'Famous last words,'

0-0-0

"Jiji sent you?"

Ichigo rubbed the back of his head,

"Guess we did forget to send a message- we've been pre-occupied…"

"He just wanted to make sure everything was ok," The man that had approached Ichigo was about his own height, dressed in the full Anbu garb, "You didn't suffer any casualties I assume?"

"No," Ichigo replied, "Well… Yeah, but no, we didn't."

"Good to hear," The man made a single handseal, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Shisha tori! (Summoning Jutsu: Messenger Bird!)"

The bird materialized and a notepad with ink and a brush appeared in its talons,

"Anything interesting that's keeping you here?"

"Well…" Ichigo paused, looking around the Anbu, "Tazuna? How much longer do we have today?"

"We're about done for the day actually," Tazuna said, "But you can go ahead early- we're fine,"

"Alright then," Ichigo replied, then turned back to the Anbu and began walking towards the house of the bridge builder, "This will be a long explanation…"

"Go ahead," the Anbu said, "I'm listening,"

0-0-0

'W-what the heck?'

A man stood in front of Gato's Mansion, wearing a tan flak jacket overtop a red shirt and red combat pants,

He blinked.

This was supposed to be _the_ job. The job that would hold him over for the rest of the year.

And the client was _dead_?

A black scorch on the ground, a few pieces of wood scattered along the grass, and some charred remainders of the building were all that was left of Gato's mansion.

That was not pleasing to say the least.

His short, black, spiky hair moved slowly in the breeze, his slashed Iwagakure hitae-ate held firm on his forehead,

'Whoever did this…'

He clenched his fists; having used much of his spare cash to get here undetected by his former village, leaving him mostly broke,

'On my name as the Legendary Dark Shinobi…'

The leaves picked up ominously around him,

'Will surely die.'

The leaves all disintegrated instantly as he thought the word, causing a grin to appear on his face,

And if they didn't have anything to pay him with as well, he would just ransack the town.

In the woods, behind one of the many trees, a curious Inari peeked from his cover, frightened,

'W-who is that guy?'

0-0-0

"And there you have it," Ichigo finished, having taken seats in the upstairs floor that they had turned into their base,

"Let me just… Reconfirm all this," The Anbu said, "You met deadly missing-nin from Kirigakure, eventually teamed up with them against Hunter-nin from Kirigakure, formed a lasting alliance, fought Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki and came out victorious, Gato's Mansion was blown up during this time. And currently Rukia Kuchiki and Zabuza Momoichi are out on a mission to retrieve Tsunade Senju to heal these two genin,"

"That's the gist of it," Ichigo said, leaning back against the wall, Zabuza's body leaning against the opposite side of the wall calmly reading Icha-Icha, "You ok Kon? You've been quiet for a while,"

"I'm ok Ichigo," Kon replied, still in Zabuza's body, "It's just that this part is based to much in the plot- there's no action at all…"

"Perv," Ichigo scoffed, "No wonder Rukia burns those things,"

"Whatever," Kon brushed the comment off, turning to the Anbu present in the room instead, "How are you holding up in Anbu, Tenzou? I, and by extent Ichigo, haven't heard anything from you in a long time,"

"It's been getting easier actually," Tenzou replied, "Since we haven't had a huge disaster in a while the workload is smaller… It's ominous…"

"That you haven't had any huge disasters?"

"No, not that Kon," Tenzou replied, "Ichigo, Root has been unactive lately."

"Root?" Ichigo rose an eyebrow, "I haven't heard that name in a while; I thought they disbanded before I came here,"

"Supposedly," Tenzou replied, "But they've infiltrated Anbu since… before I can remember. But I'm sure Kakashi mentioned it to you before,"

"I think I did," Kakashi replied lazily on his futon, his Icha-Icha covering his lower face, "It's one of the reasons you only went on missions with me instead of enrolling you fully,"

"I don't really remember that…"

The room sunk into silence, giving Tenzou time to write down more on the notepad to be taken to the Hokage, briefly looking over to the two unconscious genin, seeing their chests rise and fall slowly,

The only sign of life they had,

'I wonder if they're dreaming…' Tenzou shook his head, 'Nevermind; and even if they were, Itachi would most likely just leave them with nightmares,'

He continued to see the two boys rest, seeing no signs of sadness or pain,

'Maybe they are dreaming…'

0-0-0

_Sasuke looked down from one of the great white trees of stone down on the stony plane, having spent the night there,_

'_Exactly like it was five years ago,'_

_He looked down from the branch and ran his finger along the surface,_

'_So it was Quartz,' Sasuke thought, 'Does this mean that this place is related to time; is this a message from my brother?'_

_Sasuke let the wind blow by his face, unsettling his hair slightly, causing his grey cloak to flap around (wherever it came from),_

'_I wonder if I could find civilization this time,' Sasuke jumped from the branch and landed on the white sand, taking off towards the north._

_He had been in this desert once before; the day his clan died. He had been trapped in the desert for days before waking up, but he 'woke up' just as he had gone to sleep that one night,_

_In the very same tree he had woken up in,_

_His nose was suddenly alerted to the nothingness of the sand- the chill of the wind caused his hair to stand on end and he felt the white particles hit his eyes and go between his toes,_

_It was of no consequence though, this was the dream._

_Just like it had been five years ago._

_But yet, he had dreamed of this place between then and now hadn't he?_

_His mind continued to ponder as he walked through the white, never-ending dunes,_

'_No, it hadn't been like this,' he reasoned, he may have dreamed about being here again, but it was different… not as convincing as it had been back then and as it was now._

'_Smoke?'_

_Sasuke's head turned to the source and saw a pillar of smoke rising in the air,_

'_First sign of life I've seen so far,' Sasuke smirked, 'I guess I'll get my answers soon,'_

X=X=X

Omake! The Trek with Kakashi; Day 2

"What are we going to do in Konoha nii-san?"

"I'm not completely sure Yuzu," the older brother responded, "But I'm going to get a job, maybe Rukia too, while you and Karin go to school,"

"School?"

"Yeah. You aren't out yet." he grinned as his sister pouted,

"What about you? Aren't you going to go to school?"

"Apparently I'm too old for school Yuzu, besides I have to get a job."

"What kind of job?"

"I'm... not sure yet." Ichigo scratched his head, "But I'll just be happy to get one."

0-0-0

"Kakashi-san?"

Kakashi looked down to find Karin standing next to him,

She looked curious,

"What do you do for a living?"

He smiled and looked back to his precious Icha-Icha, "I work for my village,"

"That's not very specific,"

"It's supposed to be- it's top-secret,"

Karin scoffed, "Top-secret? What are you some kind of ninja?"

"Actually..."

"Whatever. I don't care," she quickly changed the subject, "How much longer until we get to Konoha?"

"About five days,"

"Can't we get their faster?"

"Yes,"

"Then why aren't we?"

"Because this is better."

"How come?"

"Because," Kakashi looked down to Karin and gave her a famous eye-smile,

The first of many,

"If we all ran the way to Konoha you would all be tired and unpleasant, besides, I wouldn't be able to spend time with you lovely little kids-"

He moved to ruffle Karin's hair-

Bad move.

"DON'T TOUCH ME PERVERT!"

His hand was unable to move fast enough as he was kicked straight in the crotch, causing him to fall down in pain as she continued moving,

Kakashi shriveled to the ground slowly as Karin gained distance between him,

'W-why me…?'

0-0-0

A cold shiver of fear went down the spine of one Jiraiya of the Sannin,

A shiver... in the middle of the hot springs!

Jiraiya paused and blinked,

This was the prophecy of a new anti-pervert coming to Konoha!

He quickly gathered his findings and fled from the hot springs, going to his secret hideout to cower in fear, hoping it had been just a false alarm,

**X=X=X**

**Cut!**

**The second installment of the Omake series is in; and lots of other crap has gone down. This will last at least another 2 chapters, if not 3.**

**Couple of important notes to this chapter;**

**-So many things happened… Did you catch all that? If not, basic stuff listed below (This isn't going to happen every time- but I had too many scene changes in this case)**

** -Zabuza and Rukia have made their way to the Land of Iron, finding the destination of Tsunade and preparing to track her down.**

** -Ichigo and the crew are chilling in Land of Wave; the bridge is being built with no incidents. Haku begins aiding Sakura's growth in Rukia's stead while Tenzou comes to send a report to the Hokage on their status, and who is that guy at Gato's Mansion's grave?**

** -Naruto is not faring any better in Hueco Muendo… But Sasuke appears? O.O**

**Now that the basic plot summary is over...**

**-Kami has been rather quiet in this chapter… Maybe I should make that the next Omake series installment? Lolz**

**-Aw… Yuzu is lonely… :'( Yayz to Team 10 for stopping by!**

**-Insane luck and pwn goes to Rukia **_**again**_**;****and she chooses not to work at a slot machine because…?**

**-Sakura is fighting the urge to be lazy/useless! Hooray; keep fighting the norm! ^^**

**-Two characters introduced have not been given their actual names, but both exist in the actual Naruto plot… for those who know who they are, kudos!**

**-Tenzou? And he knows Kon? What's this about Anbu and Root- let alone Ichigo…**

**Anyway, based on the ideas I've gathered from the people that gave me ideas here (and those in real life, and my own ideas,) I have decided upon Zabuza's Zanpakutou, so thanks for your input guys!**

**Also I would just like to say that this is currently my favorite piece to write in general, and to everyone who reads/likes this… Thanks a bunch. Really though you are the bomb (not the A-bomb though, let alone the H-bomb…) **

****My dry humor has traumatized your sanity, and my puns have soiled it.****

**Horrible humor aside, thanks.**

**Also feel free to review, or donate to… me. Or a local charity of your choice, like say… me.**

**~Crunch! (Random Cookies) :D**


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